Sunday15thApril07

I went to church today and have been pondering over it ever since. I couldn't figure out what it was that made me so sad to be there. The people I go with are phenomenal, down to earth, real people. And the rest of the people in the church are lovely too. But the whole time the pastor guy was preaching I found myself trying to figure out why every so often something he said would completely not sit with me.

I thought maybe it was a culture class, but despite the occasional un-pc comment about women, that wasn't it. If anything it was too western. But then I realised what it was.

The guy's heart was in the right place, but he was trying so hard that they were completely missing the boat. They had gotten so caught up in traditions that they were missing the beauty of who God is. The traditions they were going on were old school British style, you must be a 'member' to pray, or in fact contribute to the service in any way, you must read the old King James (which might be poetic but it's hard enough to understand it if english is your first language) etc etc. (They didn't particularly work in Britain so why would they work here.) The God that I know couldn't care less about traditions for the sake of traditions, He cares about people, all people, passionately. And he is most definitely multi-cultural. During the sermon the preacher was describing what God's heart is, what he cares about, and said that God cares about the church, therefore if you want to be a good Christian the most important thing is to be solely serving the church. Maybe it was just a bad interpretation of the Bible, but in the one I read, Jesus wanted to help everyone, yes he loves the church, but he called the church to predominantly serve the people, not themselves! It makes me so angry when I see so much suffering and hurt in the world, and the people who in theory should know what love truly is, are unwilling to show it to the people who actually need it. Don't get me wrong I wasn't angry at this church, I just felt sad and frustrated that they seemed to be missing out on so much of what God has to offer. God is so much more immense than anyone could ever imagine. He can actually do anything, and is not limited to working only in 'religious' churches. In fact, in my experience, He tends to turn up, packing some serious heat, when least expected, and generally when rules and traditions have been thrown out the window so there's nothing standing between you and Him, and that is a truly beautiful thing.

The thing is though, it made me wonder, how often do I compartmentalise God in my life, limiting what He can do? The answer scared me a little, but hopefully into spending a little more time with Him trying to figure out how to change that. Somewhere along the way I seem to have settled for mediocrity, and since when have I wanted that!