A Morsel of Tremendous Weight

This morning was "Communion Sunday" at Wildwood. Our church celebrates Communion every fourth Sunday of the month, which means it doesn't happen often, and I'm always pretty excited when it does.

Dave Robbins, our youth pastor, preached the message, which he opened with a string of humorous oxymorons including "hospital food," "military intelligence" (well, he implied this one but didn't outright state it because "he wants the military people to like him"), and "casual sex."

Finally,  he came to "self righteousness." You can imagine how the sermon went from there. We have no righteousness in our selves at all - we have nothing to offer in the way of goodness. It is only through Christ becoming sin on our behalf that we now have the righteousness of God; that we have righteousness at all!

I was particularly blessed by Dave's highlighting of this passage in 1 Corinthians 11:27-28:

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Communion is serious. Someone who is not a believer should not partake of it. Believers should search their hearts - "examine themselves," as it were - before partaking. We must consider where our lives are not lining up with our holy identities before we engage in such a vivid picture of the gospel and the holiness in which we now live.

I am so appreciative that the Wildwood pastors care enough to admonish their flock about the importance of a right heart in Communion, because it doesn't seem like a topic that Christians often talk about. It's not a warm, fuzzy verse in any way. Au contraire, it's really a bit alarming - no one wants to incur guilt by taking the Lord's Supper! Such verses can be hard to bring up with a few people, much less an entire congregation.

The Holy Spirit's presence was strong today as the congregation met with the Lord, repenting in humility and joy. My heart was richly blessed with the resplendence of the gospel - in addition, I was reminded that we should not be afraid to talk about the "hard things" in the Bible. They are there for a reason, and God will use them, as he did today. All praise and glory be to him!

The Voice of the People

Quote of the day -

Me, very seriously and convictedly, to Dorathea: "I'm planning to be more spontaneous this summer!"

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It's summertime! What a great feeling! God is continuously healing me, mind and heart, so thank you for your prayers, and know that Chris and I are seeing the fruit of them.

I was listening to Casting Crowns' Lifesong today, paying close attention to the lyrics. I'm pleased with that CD. So many of the songs are written from the perspective of hurting people. They address things that are pretty hard to discuss, like hypocrisy in the church, a Christian's response to tragedy and periods of depression and darkness. You know, the stuff that ticks you off or makes you cry that you can never say aloud.

These voices aren't often heard. I proffer myself as a comparative example: this semester has been a practice in honesty for me--in opening up in all my pain and confusion and anger to people who unconditionally love and support me. The fact that that was so hard for me, a long-time Christian with a very fellowship-oriented husband, begs the question: What aren't people saying?

Surely, you've experienced the kind of pain that makes your heart feeling like it's literally breaking, or that makes your consciousness feel caged in the dark. I want to be a Casting Crowns kind-of woman, who sees and cares about what God sees and cares about.

In the words of my favorite worship song, Brooke Fraser's "Hosanna": "Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen. Show me how to love like you have loved me!"

I feel like I've written this post before. In fact, I know I have. I've also written this addendum before. Ah, well, it's a refresher; moreover, a picture of where my heart is at as I do my best to surrender my feelings and my selfishness to my Lord and God.

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I just remembered how in sixth grade, my best friend and I used to say, "yeppers peppers."

Waxing Ridiculous - A true story of woe and intrigue.

Hey, everyone. I'm back!

First, the upcoming story doesn't involve either woe or intrigue. I just wanted to make the title more interesting. Now that we've gotten that out of the way:

It's been a long few weeks. I'm not sure there's ever been a period in my life when I was trying to balance this amount of homework, errands and chores, social life, time with Chris, visits to see family, church-related activities, not to mention emotional stress.

I'd appreciate continued prayer about my depression. I'm getting so much better--that much I know, based on the amount I'm able to laugh and smile now. :) However, it's difficult to be patient. God's timing is good but my fallen self wants to make everything I want happen when I want it!

Dear reader, I promised a commentary on the Easter vigil I attended to see my friend Lauren get baptized... *deep breath*

Round One: Little girl botches her blessing.

The last time I went to a Catholic church was five-plus years ago. I made a fool of myself. When it was time to take sacraments, clueless Protestant I was, I made the sign of the cross to be blessed, then still took communion! Two reasons why this is bad:

1. Non-catholics do not take communion in mass.
2. Catholics who make the sign of the cross, as I did, do so because they feel that they've been too sinful to take communion.

Therefore, I either looked like a stupid visitor, or a stupid Catholic.
In any case, I really confused the clergy.

Oh, and I thought the sign of the cross meant crossing my two index fingers. Good thing I saw the people putting their arms across their chest before I embarassed myself further!

Round Two: Young woman burns herself with an Easter candle.

I entered the sanctuary--maybe that's the wrong name, but I digress--and felt like an elementary schooler trying to find a seat at the lunch table on the first day of school. I thrilled with relief when I saw my friend Sandy sitting off to the side.

As I got closer, I wasn't sure if it was Sandy, because she looked different with her hair the way it was, and I was already very flustered and confused. I made a show of squinting at her and saying, "You are Sandy, right?" Yeah. Wow.

Once the candle lighting was about to begin, I realized I didn't get a candle at the door. Sandy's friend ran off to find one. He managed to, but instead of the kind with the plastic cup holder meant to catch wax, it was the kind with a circle of paper around it. Okay, I thought, this should be fine.

We were in the middle of singing a lovely responsive song about our souls longing after God when I hissed a sharp, "Ouch!" I looked down to see melted wax dripping off the paper, onto my hand and my black slacks. I spent the next five to seven minutes trying to manipulate the candle so the drops wouldn't fall, as well as scratching dried wax off various items with my fingernail and subtly gathering the pieces to put on the floor.

Then, it was time for baptisms. "Family and friends of Lauren Stewart." People stood. "Family and friends of..." Oh, I get it now. Uh....I think I missed my cue. I stood up awkwardly after an irrelevant family and whispered frantically to  Sandy's Catholic friend, "What do I do? Should I go?" Affirmative. I walked, all by my lonesome, to the exit. Everyone had already turned toward the baptismal just outside glass windows at the exit, so everyone's head was directed toward me, staring with eyes that bored into my soul.

Okay, okay, I'm being a little melodramatic. I felt like all eyes were on me, and I booked it as gracefully as a person can book it.

What was that about being clueless five-plus years ago?

THE END


I should have expected all that! :) It was a beautiful service overall, though I have my disagreements about the way some things are done. People read lots of scripture, and the congregation shared lots of songs about God's glorious work and character. The atmosphere was refreshingly reverent.

My disagreements are for another post, or personal inquiry.

Hope this afforded you some amount of entertainment! It did Chris and Katie! Jaimie Krycho, over and out!