Monday, March 06, 2006

Why Show up Sunday Mornings?

I don't know, this has been hitting me kind of hard lately. Why people seem to come to church on Sunday's for really no reason at all. It's like they come because they have to and somehow sitting their butt in a pew for an hour constitutes them "doing their duty", thereby getting them out of God's wrath until the next time they can show up.

I'm ready a book by Rory Noland, a worship leader, and he asks these questions. "When your church gathers for worship, are you there ready and willing to engage fully with God? Or are you 'somewhere else' during corporate worship, distracted by personal concerns or the events of the day? Do you come ready to be loved by God, or are you there to criticize the music, the drama, or the sermon?" I mean, seriously, if you're not coming to church with an open heart to be closer to God, why bother? Do people get a sense of peace by doing a ritual that doesn't make them in some way better?

The sad part is, I'm not being hypothetical. Hey, I've even had someone come to church and the only feedback they could give on a comment card was about my hair being messy. Really, where is your heart at on a Sunday morning if my hair distracts you from seeing God?

And this doesn't just apply to Sunday mornings. This should be true in every area of our lives. If we believe there is a God (according to the surveys, most of us do) and if we want a personal relationship with Him (again, the surveys say most of us do), then why do we live our lives as if God is not a part of it? Lately I've been understanding Paul's verse in Romans 7. "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. I do the very thing I hate." (v.15) It's hard to live for God. Sometimes I think our society has made the Christian walk backwards. We seem to make it hard to come to know God, then easy to follow Him, when in reality, it's very easy to accept Jesus into your life, but it gets harder from there. Everything else in the world is like that, why do we try to make our spiritual growth different?

Too much rambling, sorry for the length.

T

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