lessons learned.

It has been a while since I have posted...I've had so much on my mind and so much going on, it's hard to even know where to begin or what to post. But, I wanted to share this lesson I learned in church on Sunday.

Now, as many of you know, my husband and I are still trying to find a church in the area that we live. Previous posts will alert you to the fact that it's incredibly hard to find people our age in church. That is a very frustrating fact...but I'm not going to jump on that soapbox. Anyway...

We went to visit this church on Sunday that is practically right behind our apt. complex...about 2-3 minutes away. As we were driving to the location, I was thinking how great it would be if the church we ended up at was right behind our apt. How convenient.

So we pulled up in the parking lot and got out. There were some very friendly men who handed us bulletins at the front door. I was thinking..."So far, so good..." We walked in and saw that the congregation was somewhat younger...another good sign. We sat down and shortly the service began.

Now, let me pause here to say, I really don't have a problem with the WHOLE music issue that is circulating churches these days. I prefer hymns, but I'm not going to let it make or break a church. But, you haven't been to THIS church.

When the music leader came to the podium and said for everybody to stand to sing, this entire country band tuned up behind him. I am not exaggerating. I felt like I was at church with the Gaithers. And for you who don't know, I don't tolerate country music. Some is okay, but seriously. There was a mandolin. I kid you not. I can handle 10 choruses of "How Great is Our God," but not when it sounds like the country music awards up on stage. AND not to mention, there was a break after every chorus for an ACOUSTIC GUITAR SOLO. ::shudder:: I felt like we were in for a knee slappin', hand clappin' good time. I just do not like that kind of music.

Needless to say, I was sitting there thinking, "Where ARE we. Is there anything I can do to get up and leave and not be obvious? I can't believe what I'm hearing." Shallow as that may be, it was just too much. But then I thought, "God, you know that I do not have a very worshipful spirit right now, but one of critical thoughts and disappointed feelings. I just pray that you'll help me to get past this so that I can see that you can work through all things...even a worship service that I'm having a hard time relating to. Please forgive my feelings and reveal yourself to me through this service." As I continued to look through the bulletin, I noticed that they were having communion during the service, and I breathed a prayer of thanks because I enjoy taking communion. It's become such a wonderful time for me in worship...I think because now I see it as a way that the body of Christ can worship together. We may not all believe in the same things, or even in the same interpretation of communion within protestant denominations, but yet, we can worship together through that act. I continued to look for the good out of the service for the rest of the time and now I am so thankful that we did go there on Sunday.

The church doesn't have a pastor right now, so there was a guest speaker there on Sunday. He was an intern from one of the larger churches in our area, I guess just practicing preaching. His sermon was on the Samaritan woman at the well. One of the illustrations he shared was so powerful. It went as follows:

He has a minister friend named Matt. Matt's a little older than our guest speaker was Sunday (and this guy was probably late 20's, early 30's), but back when Matt was in college, he took an art class. He was in there with another woman, we'll call her Rita, who was a non-traditional student. She was 27 and had 3 children. So, Matt thought he'd reach out to Rita by asking to take her to a concert. He didn't tell her though that the concert followed a True Love Waits rally. Rita agreed to go and during the rally, the speaker shared this illustration. He held up a white rose and said (something like), "Look at this rose. Can you see how beautiful it is? Of course you can...it's breathtaking. The petals are a pure white, the stem is a vivid green, and its leaves are perfectly in place. Who wouldn't want this rose as their own to display? Take it and look at it." He proceeded to send it out into the crowd of people and he talked for about another 45 minutes. At the end of his talk, he asked for the rose back. The rose made its way to the stage row by row. When it got back into the hands of the speaker, it was broken and dirty. The white rose petals were now a dingy brown and the stem had been broken and was barely hanging on. None of the leaves were present anymore. The speaker made the comparison that I know you're thinking...this is what happens to people who are "passed around" from person to person. This is what sexual sin makes you look like. And who would want that? So sign the card, get the ring, make the promise because you are fearful. Well, Matt thought that was an excellent point. He had considered using it in his own sermon in the future. Matt looked over at Rita and she was completely silent. He thought, "Man, this is awesome, she must really be convicted." They rode back together and Rita continued along in her silence. The weeks that followed this concert led to a distance that grew between Rita and Matt. Rita dropped out of the class and didn't return any of Matt's calls. Finally, about 6 weeks later, Matt got a call from Rita's mother. She shared with him the news that Rita was in ICU. Matt flew to the hospital and learned that Rita had been drinking the night away at a bar the night before. She had gotten into a car with a few guys to take her home because she couldn't drive and they tried to take advantage of her. She kept them off, but they weren't going to just let her go. They pushed her out of the moving car on the Texas turnpike. She had developed a blood clot at the base of her brain that was keeping her unconscious. Matt prayed over her day after day and visited with the family when the were there. A few days later, Rita awoke and everyone rejoiced. Her family was so happy. But Rita's first words to Mike were words that stopped his celebrating. Rita turned to Matt and said, "Do you really see me as a dirty rose?" All I have to say to that is, "OH SNAP." Turns out, Matt ended up feeling the same way. I was sitting there the whole time thinking, "I can't believe that guy would say that." Fact of the matter is, most of the time teens make it to "True Love Waits" conferences, it's a little too late to wait for true love. I was thinking, "What a terrible way to go about that. Makes people feel like CRAP! Is that REALLY what Jesus would do?"

The guest speaker at the church on Sunday went on to say that if we hijack the Gospel and remove the grace, love, and mercy from its pages, we don't have anything. If anything, Jesus wants that brown dirty rose. And aren't we all brown dirty roses? That is SIN. Not just sexual, but every other thing that separates us from God. And the beauty of the cross is that it was the ultimate request for those dirty roses. That's the grace and love. So if we discount that, we discount the cross. How could we as Christians look to someone else and say that they are a dirty brown rose. That is NEVER something Jesus would have done. It was such a great message and totally hit home on something that's been on my mind lately.

There are two great problems that come in thinking that as Christians, we are EVER above others:

1-When we do have an issue that is unforeseen (which often happens in life...like you end up having to separate from your husband after you've spent years "feeling sorry for" people who do that) it's a lot harder to deal with because you're also dealing with the perception of your situation to those who are judging, because you used to judge. It's a hard slap in the face to have to learn that we really ARE all sinners, especially during such personal turmoil.

2-Others cannot learn from our past experience if we never share it. If we are paralyzed in portraying this image, then no real connection can occur among Christians. There's a lot I have seen go on among Christian people that reminds me of Desperate Housewives on Wisteria Lane. We pretend to be friends to the face of others, while hiding our secrets so that we can maintain that image of perfection.

It's just so much easier if we are all real about our lives. We all have things that are perceived as embarassing and humiliating in our lives, so why not band together and support each other.

The last interesting thing I will share is the point the speaker made on Sunday that as Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, she tried to evade his truthful words of her sinful life by switching the conversation to discussing worship. The only thing that is recorded after that is the fact that Jesus said:

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Jesus didn't say, "Wait woman, we need to resolve this issue of your 5 husbands." His response to her was sharing the nature of God and what he desires out of us. Just an interesting point, I thought.

Yes, long post. However, I haven't posted in a week, so I think it's ok. :0)

Thoughts?