CAPACITY FOR AWE

This blog is meant to be have been entered yesterday but I didn't have time to sit and write.

Capping the day was a long overdue dinner with Joy and Lennie at Eastwood. I arrived home around 12MN. Well, actually, I only had a cup of cappuccino since Leslie, a member of the Worship Creative Planning Team which met from 4 to 7:30PM, brought a huge party tray of mixed sushi and maki in celebration of her birthday tomorrow- the whole party tray of sushi was shared between four people. The drizzly day began for me with a nice early dip in the condo pool and I was off to Faith Bible College (to teach).

After the Chapel Service, I walked to my classroom and saw a piece of 8x11" sheet of paper taped to the door. The sheet is a print out of the schedule of classes which meet in that room. My subject read, "WORSHIP AND LITURGY - J. LAS." With my eyebrows raised, I came into the classroom feeling a need to correct the course/subject name/title.

A liturgy is a set form of ceremony or pattern of worship. Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used (whether recommended or prescribed) by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The word liturgy, which means "public work" was used among Greek Christians during the Byzantine era to mean public worship in general. So "Worship" and "Liturgy" in the context of the class I teach have pretty much the same meaning. And thus, I told the class to change the subject title to Worship Studies.

The Worship Studies class grew with an additional three students enrolling yesterday morning. I am not sure if if will still grow next week. Hopefully, it will.

I love how the students participated in yesterday's discussion. There was not a student who did not interact. Even the most shy participated. They have been told on the first day that the only homework I require of them is to that thay read and prepare for class discussions based on the guide questions found in the syllabus. Yesterday's discussion revolved around Psalm 19-- The General and Special Revelation of God: the Reason Behind Man's Innate Drive to Worship.

Based on how the Lord reveals Himself in nature and more importantly, Scriptures/Spirit/Jesus, it's time to reject our ruts, and forge new forms of prayer and praise to offer as an acceptable sacrifice to God.

It's time to discover our true relationship with God -- to see ourselves as creatures made by a loving Creator.

It's time to do our work in the church with creativity and imagination, making all our efforts a tribute to our truly awesome God.

So let's do it, beginning this All-Committee Night. Let's focus our energy, intelligence, imagination and love on the challenge of making our words and meditations acceptable to God. We can begin this by acknowledging that it is GOD who is at the center of the universe, not human beings. It is God who is the intelligence at the core of life, not even the smartest of people.

George Washington Carver, an African-American educator, late in life, was asked what he thought was the most indispensable thing for science in the modern age. Carver replied, "The capacity for awe."

The capacity for awe. What a strange thing for an academician to say! But how true. Awe is what opens our finite minds to the infinite intelligence of God. Awe is what connects our limited hearts to the limitless love of the Lord. Awe is what helps us to see God's glory in the sea and the land and the moon and the sun; to see God's glory in our family members and friends and fellow human beings.