Friday, July 06, 2007
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Don't worry, I'm not going to categorize my friends and acquaintances. I just need to process and remember the past few weeks.
The good: Walt and Chandra's wedding.
After a week of being my mom's "gopher"; after laying awake nights trying to determine why that cousin could definitely not sit at a table with this cousin at the rehearsal dinner; after three fancy meals; after writing and re-writing a speech; after fussing over dresses and shoes and purses and makeup and hair and nails; in short, after preparing for the wedding of two godly people I love, it was so refreshing and wonderful to stand beside them in a worship service that refocused my attention on God, the giver of these good and perfect gifts. As a little sister, it's pretty much impossible not to be emotional when your brother is choked up. But I managed to keep my tears in my eyes, which, besides not falling off the stairs, is all I was really hoping for. =)
The bad: Calling a concert a "worship service."
People like me do horrible things for money. Sometimes gigging just hurts my heart. I'm sorry, big mega-church, but praying that God will find your time and efforts glorifying to Him does not excuse your stupidity. No matter how hard you pray that God will find your "praise" an acceptable offering, it's just hard for me to imagine that spending that much money on a concert is pleasing to Him. It's hard to imagine that standing in a spotlight in front of a 200 person choir and 30 piece orchestra, singing a solo in your sequin dress for thousands of people is glorifying to anyone but you. If I am ever in a church that plays "Stars and Stripes FOREVERRRRR" while children and mediocre "famous" people prance across the stage, I will stand up and walk out. And just FYI, no one, I repeat, no one, wants to be baptised while three people are singing a cheesy version (is there any other kind of version?) of "This Land is Your Land." Does that song even mention God or the gospel? The national anthem is not worship, the pledge of allegiance is not worship, and as much as I love seeing military guys in formal dress, playing each branch's anthem isn't putting the focus on God either. I'm all for glorifying veterans (especially you, Granddaddy) but let's just call it what it is: a concert. Even a "celebration." But not worship. Singing "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb" at the end, just because it has the word "pledge" in it, doesn't somehow tie all of it back to God. Ugh.
The ugly: self-revelation?
It's funny how God uses the good and the bad to reveal ugly stuff about yourself. It's easy to point at a mega-church and condemn them for using money to entertain an upper-middle class audience that has plenty of money to entertain themselves. But the places I put my time, my money, and my efforts are equally questionable most (if not all) the time. Likewise, observing such a beautiful sacrement of marriage really highlights your own pettyness and shallowness. Marriage is pledging that you'll be selfless the rest of your life, and I happen to like the selfishness that singleness provides. Hmm.
Praise God for beauitful and nasty reminders that He is kind and faithful even to his most delinquent children.
Praise for His Word, and for men like Boice who write expositionally and pull me out of my apathy and into the beauty and depth of the Psalms.
Praise for men like C.S. Lewis and girls like Lucy and Polly who let me escape into a world of pictures and thought.
Thankfulness for
cars and phones, friends that know how my heart and brain work, new friends, baseball, honesty, Taft, free time, men that fix my car, cafe artiste, leaving and coming and going and staying, drivers that don't run me off the road, goat cheese, talking, and my favorite Billabong flip-flops from Sydney
One day, perhaps I'll write something worth reading. So stick around, dear ones.
The good: Walt and Chandra's wedding.
After a week of being my mom's "gopher"; after laying awake nights trying to determine why that cousin could definitely not sit at a table with this cousin at the rehearsal dinner; after three fancy meals; after writing and re-writing a speech; after fussing over dresses and shoes and purses and makeup and hair and nails; in short, after preparing for the wedding of two godly people I love, it was so refreshing and wonderful to stand beside them in a worship service that refocused my attention on God, the giver of these good and perfect gifts. As a little sister, it's pretty much impossible not to be emotional when your brother is choked up. But I managed to keep my tears in my eyes, which, besides not falling off the stairs, is all I was really hoping for. =)
The bad: Calling a concert a "worship service."
People like me do horrible things for money. Sometimes gigging just hurts my heart. I'm sorry, big mega-church, but praying that God will find your time and efforts glorifying to Him does not excuse your stupidity. No matter how hard you pray that God will find your "praise" an acceptable offering, it's just hard for me to imagine that spending that much money on a concert is pleasing to Him. It's hard to imagine that standing in a spotlight in front of a 200 person choir and 30 piece orchestra, singing a solo in your sequin dress for thousands of people is glorifying to anyone but you. If I am ever in a church that plays "Stars and Stripes FOREVERRRRR" while children and mediocre "famous" people prance across the stage, I will stand up and walk out. And just FYI, no one, I repeat, no one, wants to be baptised while three people are singing a cheesy version (is there any other kind of version?) of "This Land is Your Land." Does that song even mention God or the gospel? The national anthem is not worship, the pledge of allegiance is not worship, and as much as I love seeing military guys in formal dress, playing each branch's anthem isn't putting the focus on God either. I'm all for glorifying veterans (especially you, Granddaddy) but let's just call it what it is: a concert. Even a "celebration." But not worship. Singing "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb" at the end, just because it has the word "pledge" in it, doesn't somehow tie all of it back to God. Ugh.
The ugly: self-revelation?
It's funny how God uses the good and the bad to reveal ugly stuff about yourself. It's easy to point at a mega-church and condemn them for using money to entertain an upper-middle class audience that has plenty of money to entertain themselves. But the places I put my time, my money, and my efforts are equally questionable most (if not all) the time. Likewise, observing such a beautiful sacrement of marriage really highlights your own pettyness and shallowness. Marriage is pledging that you'll be selfless the rest of your life, and I happen to like the selfishness that singleness provides. Hmm.
Praise God for beauitful and nasty reminders that He is kind and faithful even to his most delinquent children.
Praise for His Word, and for men like Boice who write expositionally and pull me out of my apathy and into the beauty and depth of the Psalms.
Praise for men like C.S. Lewis and girls like Lucy and Polly who let me escape into a world of pictures and thought.
Thankfulness for
cars and phones, friends that know how my heart and brain work, new friends, baseball, honesty, Taft, free time, men that fix my car, cafe artiste, leaving and coming and going and staying, drivers that don't run me off the road, goat cheese, talking, and my favorite Billabong flip-flops from Sydney
One day, perhaps I'll write something worth reading. So stick around, dear ones.
