Today I had the opportunity to sit in front of my TV and be a greeter at Church. This isn’t how this is supposed to be. We had some technical difficulties, and the feed was missing sound for the first 10 minutes. This is not how this is supposed to be. I had technical difficulties at home with my TV, and I participated in the service through a 4″ phone. This morning all I thought was, “This isn’t how it is supposed to be.”
During the service, once it got working, I had some friends from Church text me about the tech stuff and sent me thanks for it working. I had nothing to do with fixing it, I just let the team know at Church it wasn’t working. At the end of our conversation, one of them said, “I can’t wait until I can see my Church family again.” I agreed this isn’t how this is supposed to be.
Although there is a lot of good that has come from all this, not the least of which is churches and people sharing Jesus online, I cannot tell you how much I want to be together with people in worship. This is not how it is supposed to be. I look forward to the amazing moment when our community can be together again. It will be a great moment for our people and for me personally. I love people, and I can’t wait to be together again.
I had a thought today; even when we get back together, even when we get together and pull out all the stops and it feels like heaven, it won’t be. This just isn’t how it is supposed to be. You see one day, when this is all over, we will gather all together, in person, in our resurrected body for worship that will last for eternity. It will be beyond amazing, and it will be beyond everything we have ever experienced or seen. We will hug our loved ones and celebrate Jesus like we can’t even imagine. That is the day we see a little here but will see more fully when Jesus comes again.
I pray as we go through these days that we are reminded that this isn’t how it is supposed to be, not just in worship, all of it. Jesus changes everything, and I can’t wait for it to be just as He said it will be.
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”Revelation 7:13-17 ESV
I like to dress up for Lutheran schools week. My goal each year for this week is to dress up as much as possible. I am all about “going big or going home”. My favorite part is watching peoples reactions when I walk in the building. I know I look like a nut. I know I should probably never go out in public like this but I do. I do it all because I love to draw attention to myself….(ok that sounds really narcissistic when you write it that way but keep reading so you don’t think too poorly of me.)
t is the day after Christmas. All those things under the tree that seemed new just 24 hours ago are looking less so. Soon all those decorations around the house will need to be taken down. All the stuff put away and life going back to normal. Maybe even a little dull. Soon the kids will be bored with their toys and other things they got for Christmas. It will all lose the luster of being new.
When I was a kid I remember all sorts of catalogs of toys especially this time of year. We would often get the big toys r us book around Christmas and circle all the things we wanted to get. We were so excited when it came. We probably circled 200 items in the whole catalog. It probably would have been easier if we had just crossed off the things we didn’t want.
youthguysteve 