Today could be simply summed up by saying we went to church.
And when I say church I don’t mean we entered a building and sang some songs and listened to a sermon (we didn’t even stay for the sermon). When I say church I mean we entered a community committed to worshiping God through all of our strength, all of our knowledge, and all of our hearts.
I don’t speak much Spanish.
So naturally it was difficult for me to participate in corporate worship in a language I don’t speak well. But as always, God was not satisfied with my excuses. He told me pretty flat out that I was going to have to get creative with worshipping Him– because just doing nothing wasn’t going to be an option. So I clapped to the beat (much better than the lady with the tambourine) and swayed to the music (not as well as the guy dancing in front of me), and sang what I could understand. I felt this was all I could do. But as I was leaving church God whispered: “That wasn’t worship…”
I was reminded of the prophet Isaiah.
He was a prophet of the Lord, a missionary, and God told spoke a little about worship through Him. So reading in the book of Isaiah sounded like a pretty good idea– I only made it 11 verses before I got slammed…
Isaiah 1:11-16:
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
“I’m sick of what you call worship.”
The songs I sing are insufficient. My prayers are empty. God dreads it when I go to church, just to fake it one more time. It’s easy to talk worship, but hard to actually live it. God didn’t want me to sing a song, or clap, or dance– He just wanted me to know that He is good, and for me to give Him my heart. All He wanted was me– all of me. He wasn’t asking for me to say anything but: “Here I am, take me.” So that’s what I did– I choose to truly worship Him.
After service we went to the market for a couple of hours and bought some stuff, tried some food, and watched Netherlands surprisingly beat Mexico with two points in the last few minutes of the game. We left the market to go to a lagoon in the middle of a dormant volcano. I’ve never swum (swam? Idk…) in a volcano before so as you can imagine it was a pretty awesome experience– also it was extremely beautiful.
After we swam for a few hours we went home and got on with our normal routine: relax, dinner, devotion, bed. I’d say that it was a pretty darn good day.