Tony the simple churches guy sent me a link to the Porpoise Diving Life website some time ago.  It’s an obvious spin on the Rick Warren how-to-be-a-succesful-Christian-by-living-according-to-your-purpose book, The Purpose-Driven Life.  It’s a site for the rest of us, those who don’t feel that they have some great purpose, or worse, don’t know how to stick to a life that’s brimming with purposeful activity.  A site for folks like me.
 
So, why am I so despondent today?  My life is a wreck.  I am depressed, exhausted, a loser, unstable, and shaken at my very core. I have journeyed down a path that can do very little good, but I lack the ability to turn around.  I just don’t know how to get back onto the road with God.  No, he’s not gone—I am.   I’m searching for something or someone to fill the holes in my life, but I have a sneaky suspicion that only God can do the filling.  I want to live for the greater good, to pursue things that will benefit others, but as usual, I’m too selfish.  I want God to take away my distractions and hurt, but he says no.  I guess he thinks I’ll be able to relate to others better if I’m not all happy-go-lucky.  Sometimes I hate his logic.  In any case, a passage from the Porpoise Diving Life website offers some insight into what I think is somewhat screwy thinking on God’s part:
 
Perhaps it’s time to get real. Sometimes, life sucks. There are periods when life seems like an accident rather than anything anyone would have thought up and thrust upon us on purpose. At other times, something incredibly wonderful occurs in life. It’s like you need to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming. You might even feel like you don’t deserve the good fortune that has come your way. On occasion, a sense of gratitude wells up within you. You feel like you’re floating. At other times, you experience days that are dreadfully boring. You feel like pulling the covers over your head and taking a long nap or pressing the fast-forward button to get beyond the drudgery of it all… [But] Jesus dove into life. I become unsettled rather quickly when I hear people speak about Jesus as if He floated above it all during the time he lived with us on this planet. One central truth that permeates the life of Christ in Scripture is that He had his ups and downs, good days and bad, joy and distress, clarity and confusion, contentment and frustration. I adore how one author describes this undeniable aspect of the life of Christ: “I discovered a man who was almost continually frustrated. His frustration leaps out of virtually every page: “What do I have to say to you? How many times do I have to say it? What do I have to do to get through to you?” I also discovered a man who was frequently sad and sometimes depressed, frequently anxious and scared. A man who was terribly, terribly lonely, yet often desperately needed to be alone. I discovered a man so incredibly real that no one could have made him up”…Jesus lived The Porpoise Diving Life.
 

Once again, my travels around town have proved to be fruitful for finding blogging material.   While heading down the highway, I saw this message on the sign in front of a church:
Services…Traditional.
True Worship Never Changes!
 
To understand the arrogance of this message, you need to put it into context.  Generally, churches (who meet in a building) have signs that announce the times and styles of the services they offer, such as “Traditional at 9am”, “Contemporary at 10am”, etc.  If they have space, they may add a verse of Scripture, a saying, or my favorite, the scare-you-into-church message, such as “Are you prepared to meet God?”   I always wonder if they know something about me that I don’t, like the exact day I will be departing earth…  Any way, this church boldly announced that it only offers one type of service—the traditional one.  And while that’s not my taste—of course neither is meeting in a building—I do not find that to be offensive.  But, they didn’t stop there.  As you already saw, they added the true worship never changes.  Well, I think they might be wrong.  And I’ll use a little history and Scripture to tell you why.
 
Let’s start with the Scripture part.  It is true that in the Old Testament God had folks worshipping in a particular place, at an appointed time, with a particular style.  But, that wasn’t the case in the New Testament.  “Church”, so to speak, was held wherever, whenever—outside, for example.  Jesus gave his most important message on a hill outside.  You may have heard of it—it’s called the Sermon on the Mount.  But people also met in homes for prayer and meals—the most basic form of worship there is.  We encounter this type of worship in the Book of Acts.  And worship was generally not formal—we are told of spontaneous worship upon hearing news from Peter and John in Acts.  They gave a report to their friends, and “they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer” (The Message).  I really can’t think of a more basic way to worship than as one voice in prayer.  And Jesus himself defines what true worship is.  The book of John reports that Jesus met a woman at a well one day.  She asked him if the only true place to worship was in Jerusalem.  He told her that things have changed—what you are called and where you worship no longer matter.  “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God”, he explains  (The Message).  He continues that one must worship in sprit and in truth—in other words, that true worship must be life changing and engaging, and it must come from a place of adoration and love.
 
And now for the history.  My friend Tony the simple churches guy explains it this way: the early church met in homes, because they were, for the most part, persecuted.  They couldn’t just show up wherever they liked and have church.  So, church as we know it today really has it roots in Christian Rome.  When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, people started dressing up and building beautiful places to hold their church services.  But, this was not for God!  No, it was for the Emperor.  You see, now that the emperor was a Christian, there was a chance he may show up and join you for worship.  Well, better look your best and be in the finest building in town if you wanted to have him back!  And then, almost overnight, church went from being intimate, private, and probably casual to being big, “public”, and generally quite showy.
 
The point of my ranting on this topic is this: it’s quite audacious for someone to say they have cornered the market on true worship.  And it’s even more arrogant to say that how someone else chooses to worship God is wrong.  God is full of mystery and surprises.  What’s more, we’re cautioned against judging others, lest we be judged against our own standards.  I’m not trying to threaten; I’m just suggesting that God is far more open-minded about how he is praised than I believe we tend to be. And one more thing—the traditional, “true” worship service that church said it offers—well, it’s only traditional in a Roman sort of way…
 
 
 

Last night was the first night I had off from pet sitting in almost a week.  I put clean, comfy sheets on the bed as I listened to the Jazz program on NPR.  If you don’t listen to NPR, I suggest you do something about that—and soon.  NPR is one of the best things going in the world of media.  I recently traded cable for it.  Any way, I finished making the bed and then hopped in the shower.  When I got out, I slid into my warm bed and realized that God makes the small seem big when he filters it through the lens of a blessing.  What I mean is that making the bed can seem like a chore, but instead the whole evening was a huge blessing.  I didn’t know how much I missed listening to the radio and getting ready for bed.  I had forgotten how fast the dogs fall asleep when Alan and I are around (yes, Alan was around—he was off too, and enjoying his own blessing, video game time).  I was reminded of how precious the “small” things are, and how kind God is.
 
On another note, while I was traveling about last week, I saw this bumper sticker: God is Pro-Life.  Hum, I wondered.  Yes—I agree that God is pro-life.  After all, he did start the whole life thing.  But what was so curious about this bumper sticker was its proximity to other stickers that are not typically associated with the value of life: Support our Troops and “W”.  In all fairness, a person with such a variety of stickers may indeed be pro-life, but I assume that’s not entirely the case.  I know the old joke about “assume”—that it makes an ass out of you and me.  So what.  I’m assuming…
I figure that the proclamation that God is pro-life is in reference to the ongoing abortion debate.  But it screams of a bigger problem.  If God is pro-life, is he always pro-life or just when it comes to babies?  See, if God only cares about the fate of babies, then I think that’s cruel.  It’s like saying, “Hey, kiddo, I care that you are born.  But after that, oh well.”  It’s been my experience that many people who are pro-life are also supportive of actions and policies that are not so life valuing—war, cuts in social aide, cuts in education.  I mean, it seems unfair to do all that one can to ensure that a baby is actually brought into this world, but then really have no interest in it’s welfare once it actually arrives.  I know that this isn’t always the case, but this is how it appears to me.  And I assume I’m not alone in that perception.
Yes, God is pro-life.  I just don’t think it’s in the exact way that the bumper sticker bearer intended.