Ecclesiastes 5:1-2,7 " Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than offer sacrifice. Don't be quick with your mouth...let your words be few. Many words are meaningless. Therefore, stand in awe of God."
The sounds of a hot air balloon wakes me from sleep and motivates me to get out of bed to get a glimpse of it passing by. The Liberty Bell floating in the sky with the words "We The People" on it proclaims to all below our country's freedoms.
Hot air balloons venture out when it's quiet and the air is calm. That's why I can hear the balloon so well this Sunday morning - it is quiet all around. No scurrying below. Not many cars traveling to places. Just birds singing their morning hymns. It is easy to stop and stare in awe as this massive balloon suspends in the air overhead, defying gravity.
It draws my spirit upward, wanting to hear from a Good God. I'm drawn to Ecclesiastes. Maybe because I want to remind myself what is meaningful and what is not in this time of year when summer ends and our new lives begin for the school & work season. I start a new job on Monday, and it is easy to be anxious about it, but I know that is meaningless.
But it's not Monday, it's Sunday...and Solomon in all his wisdom says to guard my steps when I go to the house of God. To go near to listen and having few words. And stand in awe of God. That's what I seek this morning - God's Awe! I don't want to walk into church the way I often do, scanning the foyer like a politician and it being about "who you know", but guarding my steps so that I'm not distracted from the real purpose of being in church. I will respond to the greeters. I will visit with people on my way in, but I want my spirit to be quiet and calm as I enter the sanctuary doors and prepare to stand in awe of the one overhead, speaking into the still, quiet places of my soul.
What a privilege we have to worship together this morning; a freedom others in this world don't have. The Liberty Bell reminded me of that this morning. And Solomon reminded me of the distractions that are meaningless even on Sunday mornings in church. Distractions that rob me of the purpose and the real meaning of why we go to the house of God.
I'm convicted that I've been going to church for myself. With ME on my mind.
I remember the first time a collection of hot air balloons flew over our house. We had just moved into the neighborhood, and it was another Sunday morning. I began hollering at the girls to run outside to see the sight. We "ooed" and "awed" in the backyard, pointing at them, admiring each of their features and designs. And then we noticed something...our neighbors were in their back yards too....all of us in our bathrobes! We were so undone by the awe of the moment, nothing kept us from catching a glimpse, not even our lack of wardrobe.
I'm not saying go to church in your bathrobe, but my prayer is that we may become undone in such a way that we can't imagine missing sight of the One Lifted High and stand in awe!
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