Lessons from a Stapler - A Reflection on Worship

            Worship, as defined by Richard Foster, is “the human response to the divine initiative.”  It is “kindled within us only when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit.”  To me, just these sentences alone are enough to be radical.  Instead of a worship that is ritualistic or simply going through the motions, true worship is the response to God’s attributes becoming known to my human mind.  It is forgetting about all of the lists that I make in my mind, even for a moment, and reflecting and then acting upon God’s ever-present Spirit.

            As you all can probably tell, I have been thinking a lot about worship this week.  It is the first discipline that my class and I are going through.  When I first thought about the assignment for this week, I have to admit that I thought that it would be so easy.  However, God really showed me how much I can fail in something that I think about so much.  This week, it was my plan to really focus on God throughout my day and be willing to stop what I was doing so as to let God transform me through my actions.  In some ways, this went well.  In other ways, I find myself begging for the grace of God as I was confronted with an onset of exhaustion and mindless business that forced my focus away from God.

            Most of this week, I felt like the stapler that I use in the Business Office where I work.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love this stapler because of the imperfections and frustrations that it applies to my life – I’m also not using this blog to try to convince anyone to buy me a new stapler.  This stapler has a habit of looking so perfect on the outside; but when I go to connect two pieces of paper together, the stapler will literally fall off of the hinges that hold the entire thing together. I was reminded of this stapler whenever I would try to find a spot in my day to sit in silence and wait for God’s Spirit to invoke a response.  Instead of finding a peace, somehow I felt jarred from my hinges with more work and stress.  It was only after stumbling through each bit of business and exhaustion that I would look back and realize that it was God who was providing me with the energy to keep going.  Sometimes, it feels like I can only praise God when the stresses that are placed upon me are temporarily lifted.  Anyone else?

            However, during the frantic business of last week, I also found times where God reminded me of who I am and why I need to spend time with Him.  Before I go to bed each night, I always read a couple of chapters in my Bible.  For the last several weeks, I have been reading through the Psalms.  A common theme that I continued to read over and over again was the statement, “Praise the LORD.”  Whenever I would read that, there would always be a peace that would wash over me.  I guess you could say that God was putting me back onto my hinges, just like after each time I attempt to staple something.  I also felt God’s Spirit touching my own when I was at a Bible study and we were all going around in a circle and praying for each other.  The power of prayer is overwhelming and reminded me, again, that God was putting me back on my hinges again.

            I guess that is just how life is sometimes.  God can be found in the midst of my worries, fears, and stress, but only after I actually stop and let Him put me back onto my hinges again.

Who Am I?

This journey that I am a part of begins with family.  My family is one of the primary ways in which I identify myself.  As the youngest child with two older brothers, I always felt protected and cared for – except those times when my big brothers got the impression that I was the spoiled brat and therefore needed to be excluded and brought down a peg on the ladder of life.  However, being the little sister had and continues to have its advantages.  Because of both of my brothers’ influences, I am a closet fan of all things Star Wars, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Crash Bandicoot.  Slight tom-boyishness aside, my parents and my brothers have made me cherish a life that is surrounded by love, compassion, understanding, and grace.  God certainly has blessed me in this way.

Another blessing that has formed me into who I am today was having the privilege of going to a public high school.  Usually, people have horror stories about how much they loathed high school and all of the people there.  This is definitely not the case for me.  I like to think that my group of friends and I floated above the drama and pressures of high school.  Although there were some difficult times, the group of friends that I hung out with since elementary and middle school stayed intact, still keeping in contact today.  Now that I attend a Christian college, people always ask me about my horror stories from attending a public school.  My only answer is those brown paper lunch bags would always squish my sandwiches so that they looked super nasty when I tried to eat with my friends at lunch.  Oh the horror!

Some random facts about me include a love of black olives, an intense attraction to reading, a love of organization (sometimes there is a little bit too much love going on there), an excitement over kittens, squirrels, and llamas, and a love of fall.  My idea of a perfect day would include a lot of laughter, serious talks, and temporary tattoos.  As of this moment, I am majoring in Biblical Studies and Intercultural Studies and minoring in Business Leadership.  With these degrees, I hope to work at a not-for-profit organization in some type of human service and administrative role.

So you are probably asking, what is even the whole point of this blog and this rant?  The purpose of this blog for the semester is to reflect on the Christian life in general and my own spiritual journey as I study the disciplines of spirituality.  I hope to live life well and the way that God intended it to be:  being filled by His Spirit in order to give of myself to others.  Now that you have some background information about me, feel free to ask me any questions that you might have.  In upcoming posts, I will be reflecting upon and probably mentioning different events that have happened in my life.  Again, if you have any questions or would like to talk, I am always up for a chat over hot chocolate!

Blessings to you all in the days to come.