but it is good your eyes were writing things down. there is hope for him and for her and for us.

"let my people go."

let them read the lyrics. let them think about ramifications. let them get over themselves. let them love authentically.

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.
~ II Thessalonians 3:5a

conversation b/t a member of a fundamental church in town and one of the assistant pastors:

member: "sometimes when we are singing, i feel like raising my hands."

assistant pastor: "why don't you?"

why are there certain things we just don't do? why do we feel we must fit into certain molds?

i will clarify this for kurt based on personal testimony only.

for me, raising hands in worship carries a lot of negative (charismatic, showmanship) connotations. i've been taught, more or less accurately, granted, about the pitfalls of sensationalism and various and sundry movements that thrust overmuch attention on more or less important elements. i fully grant that my reticence is due to my background experience in a conservative midwestern Baptist church. i'm sure if i was raised in different circumstances, say in the general South or in Seattle or perhaps in a vacuum, i would have a slightly different perspective. however, i wasn't.

for me, it would take a long time to reprogram my mind so that i wasn't self-conscious about such an action -- self-conscious to the point that it defeats the authenticity of the original impulse. -- "wow, my hands are in the air and how'd that happen and i'm trying to remember have i ever really done this before in church and no one else's arms are raised and i wonder if they think i'm tripping out like that [they thought] that one visitor guy did at bju that one sunday morning" -- does tend to put a damper on the action's significance, even if it did start out as a perfectly natural expression and reasonable response to begin with.

so i don't. because in my church it would draw attention. mostly mine. unlike the little girl in steph's post, i would be thinking way too much about the novelty of it and the defendable legitimacy of it...and way too little about the point of it. and what is the point of it? Jesus wants our genuine heart worship. emotional responses are not bad. affections are not inherently evil. honest transparency and forgetting of oneself is all part of the package of worship: it's about God.

which brings me full circle. it would be too weird for someone with my God-ordained background experience to sustain a purely motivated (even if originally spontaneous) reaction like raising my hands. eventually, for me, it would be detracting from the focus on Christ, rather than magnifying him.

and that's ok. if raising my hands were essential to worship...if we were really gauging the "effectual"ness of our worship based upon the quality of our acoustics or vibrato or wall hangings or posture or our vegetable offerings (as though they earn us points on a scale from 1 to 10 for pleasing God)...if the acceptability of my love really hinged on the conventional or not-so-conventional external manifestations like raising hands (i.e. not the caring for widows and orphans and serving the household of faith, etc.)...then i daresay God would've seen to it that his revelation on that point was clear enough it couldn't have been missed and it could be biblically affirmed. since it seems to be kind of a who-cares point for him, i'm ok with it either way too.

that all being said. i hope my daughter will respond out of a pure heart to Christ, whatever that ends up looking like -- not because she was manipulated or influenced or deluded -- but because she means it. and if she does...i won't quench or grieve or crush; by God's grace, i won't.

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