receive.

i went to a church service here in st. louis with a friend yesterday, and was kind of taken for a spin. the church was on it's 4th week of a word a week leading up to the christmas service (of which there was TEN--it was so packed) and this week was receive. i think throughout the service most of our thoughts consisted of asking questions as to when the meaty stuff was going to come, when is there going to be the christmas message, when is the story going to be told. but there wasn't really any of that, just simple explanation after simple explanation of what means to receive an incredible gift--namely the gift of Christ. grace was emphasized so much that there wasn't much else to the sermon.

while there are reasons why this will never really be my "home" church, it forced us to step back from analyzing all the components that went into this service and just reflect on this core reality of Christianity. this gift of God making himself fully man--for us--is something that i need to keep coming back to. God is a God we can and should worship. and doing that, really letting our soul rest in the worship, receiving the grace that is continually poured out on us, is so important.

i think sometimes i can get so caught up in all the forward progress that i need to be making, doing all of these things for God and trying to be culturally relevant and focusing on all of these other things. during our drive home, we had some good talk time about how it is good and "successful" in itself to worship, to rest in grace truly, and to do that before anything else. it is such a simple thing, yet the difficulty comes when we lost sight of what a true gift it is. everything in us wants to say "what's next," or "ok, now what," but it's ok to be just be; it just is.


on another note, what would i do without all of these amazing friends i have? i have been so blessed, and i am so grateful for that.


merry christmas!