April 30, 2009

  • THOUGHTS ON DIVERSITY

    This morning about 4:00,  I awoke to find Muffin was taking her piece out of the middle of the bed and hubby was laying corner to corner and sleeping loudly while I did my best to not fall off of what was left between hubby and the few inches I had left. So for the two hours between the time I awoke in this predicament and the alarm went off, I mentally landscaped the new flower bed about a dozen different ways. 

    My plan is to have nothing but foliage plants and things with white blossoms inside the fenced part of the yard. (I read somewhere that white makes you feel cooler when you are hot.) Anyway, as I was doing this mental landscaping, I got to thinking about how many different kinds of flowers actually have white blooms and how even among only all white flowers, there are so many different shapes and sizes I couldn't begin to use them all. 

    And it was then that the Holy Spirit reminded me how creation proves how much God loves diversity. Think about it... God created every snowflake unique... every human being has different fingerprints and DNA.  And then I was reminded how different His ways are than mine. God loves all kinds of people, while we tend to only love those who look and act most like us. Then I got to thinking about church and worship, and much like the parables in the Bible, God taught me a lesson using something from my everyday life He knew I would understand ~ gardening. It goes something like this:

    Just as God finds pleasure in all kinds of plant life; not just the flowers with white blossoms I have chosen to  plant in my garden, He finds pleasure in all styles of worship. I tend to think my way is best! I prefer stringed instruments, harmonious songs with a beat I can clap or tap my foot to, conversational prayers, and practical teaching. But what if there is no certain method that most pleases God? What if my chosen style of worship says more about my personality and preferences than biblical doctrine?

    What if Father God finds equal pleasure in  both worshipful silence and shouts.... primitive chants and elaborate harmonious melodies.... liturgy and conversational prayers.... bowed heads and dancing....vocal and instrumental songs of praise?  What if He planned diversity of worship, just like he planned the multitude of different kinds of white flowers, knowing that we would all be drawn to a kind that best touches our hearts and helps us to communicate with Him?

    Psalm 150

     1 Praise the LORD. 
           Praise God in His sanctuary;
           praise Him in His mighty heavens.

     2 Praise Him for His acts of power;
           praise Him for His surpassing greatness.

     3 Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet,
           praise Him with the harp and lyre,

     4 praise Him with tambourine and dancing,
           praise Him with the strings and flute,

     5 praise Him with the clash of cymbals,
           praise Him with resounding cymbals.

     6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
           Praise the LORD.

Comments (7)

  • Diversity is good. Tolerance... that's a different word. Many people like to equate the two. Bad idea. Sorry for the tangent, its just one of my soapboxes.

  • I miss FC worship but simple piano and hymn book is good too.

  • I tried to comment earlier but xanga was being stubborn!!!  I've got a white lilac bush if you ever want a clipping.  It was my mother's and she took a clipping everywhere she moved.  I also have a shasta daisy story.  The young one gave me a rosebush for Mother's Day one year.  We decided where it could go, ie, early morning, full east sun.  The flowerbed had shasta daisies almost ready to bloom and some weeds.  I put him in charge of clearing the weeds.  He came in later and told me it was finished.  I went outside and my mouth dropped.  He had cleared the entire bed.  I hugged him and thanked him for the rose AND for weeding the bed.  Later the dog ate the rosebush. 

  • @FKIProfessor - I agree! Diversity and tolerance are FAR from the same thing. I was talking about Christian worship methods, not Who we worship or how we be come His child.  The Bible is singular on Who that is and How to do it.

  • I loved this post!  Lots of good food for thought!

  • this reflects something i wrote awhile back.

    while i think the lines we draw between each other are wrong, i think that different churches exist to serve different types of people...different types of personalities.

    the wrong comes in judging "our" way of doing thigns to be the only way...and attempt to dictate to everyone else what "ought" to be done.

    i can't wait to se how God is going to use different worship styles in heaven.

  • Hmm...I used this same example to help my dad understand that it was OK to get married in the Lutheran church and not the Catholic one I had been raised in...God created us all us differently, there must be a variety of ways to worship Him!

    Sadly having a Catholic ceremony didn't save his marriage from the pain of divorce. It's our relationship with God, not the church we attend that binds our marriage

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