To follow up on my thoughts about a generous life from last week I want to borrow the words of a new friend to help you think about worship in a broader sense.
True Worship Steps Into Pain
From Dan On Haiti
Tonight, my heart is half a world away, with friends who are aggressively working to respond to the crisis in Haiti. I don't know all those friends by name; I do know that I am
thankful for their feet going in my stead, ambling through airports and stepping into rubble.
It is ours to remember, that in a time like this in the world, when poverty stricken nations find trouble upon trouble mounting toward them, that we who bear the Hope of the
world enter into their pain - like the God Who we follow.
If Jesus' life evidences anything to us about true worship, it is that the God unseen enters into, walks into, even runs into, the pain of those who are "other." He spends Him-
self on behalf of those He loves. This is His way.
We who live far from Haiti in these moments must allow ourselves to bear pain with them, as part of our human family, and as another reason for the great wealth and gifts we possess in our parts of the world. Strength finds its reason and purpose in covering another's weakness. This is His Design.
They are our family, no matter each one's faith perspective.
We do not all need to be in Haiti. We must trust that those who must go, will go. But is not enough to shake our heads and share moments of awe and sorrow. We must make the
request of God that He reveal to us our part to play, no matter how simple it may be.
I encourage you, as an act of living worship as your read this, to ask what your part is to play. Then, simply respond.
We each have a portion in one another's story. We are connected with Haiti's turmoil in ways we may only sense when the lights are out and we are considering the world in which we find ourselves.
In this case of pain that reaches our eyes and ears, we are invited by God to weep and mourn with them over what is all of our great loss. If it were directly my own, I would wan them to ask what their part was to play in coming to my loved one's support.
True worship, in the face of great suffering, asks for an invitation into the pain that God and the sufferers carry. Simply ask, then simply respond. It is enough.
In this journey of willingness, we find real prayers rising, authentic acts of physical and spiritual generosity, and the ability to partner with God in the ways in which He is inviting us.
It is a privilege to worship with you, in our generation, and to lead others into the kind of worship encounters that compel us into the very Heart of Love, and into the very Heart of Suffering.
We, as followers of Jesus, choose both.
In prayer with you for Haiti,
Dan
Dan Wilt, M.Min.
Learning Community Director
WorshipTraining.com
Jesus, help me understand how stepping into pain can be a powerful act of worship. Lead me with regard to Haiti, and the arenas in my life where I must experience pain first-hand. Give me Your heart of love, the most generous.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy
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