Going Beyond

We had an “upset the applecart” day in church yesterday. We were asked to wear nametags (you know, the “Hi, my name is….” tags) and were asked to sit somewhere in the auditorium where we normally would not sit. The idea was that with a congregation of several hundred souls, there were people we don’t know even though we’ve been attending for some time. It really was a fun thing to do.
We moved to another area of the auditorium and happened to be sitting such that we could see the sign language interpreter head-on. Normally, we sit where we see them work from kind of a side view. I’ve always been fascinated by signing and enjoy watching the signer as he or she interprets the words I hear. I try to match the words with the sign.
We sang “Holy, Holy, Holy” and I was able to look head-on as Scott interpreted the words. I don’t know what happened, but I saw in that signing a beauty and an awesomeness that just bowled me over as surely as if I’d fallen to the floor.
The words themselves are wonderful in that song, and the sign interpretation of it by Scott just seemed to bring out a kind of understanding that went beyond the meaning of the words themselves. The whole was greater than the sum of the parts, as some would say.
To say that worship takes place only during such times is, of course, fallacy. However, to say that worship must be devoid of such emotional times is also patently untrue. We are created as emotional spirits that inhabit physical bodies. There must be a blend and balance as we struggle to let the God of heaven and earth know of our love and devotion…not an easy thing since our actions speak louder than our words. And our actions on a daily basis are, if anything, less than stellar.
We say in worship that we love Him, yet we continue to lie, cheat, steal, gossip, and generally disobey in everyday life. How can He possibly believe what we say, knowing that we do what we do? I think it helps sometimes to have moments of worship that go beyond our saying that we love Him. I think this moment was one of those.