Christian Living

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I am sitting in a church I have never been to before. The choir is singing. The congregation is listening. There is almost nil participation from the congregation. I start wondering: Is it because they don’t know the songs? Or is it because singing is a preserve of the choir? After finishing wondering, I start wishing: If only they could read A Life Of An Enthusiastic Worship

It looks kind of strange that the congregation should sit back and listen instead of singing. Worship should have everybody participating and not some people spectating. I don’t know the songs, so I sit back and listen. But, I wonder, if I know the songs and start singing loud, would the people around me start thinking that I am seeking attention? Need I care if I am worshipping my God? In my local church, we usually join the praise team and (almost) everybody is involved.

A pretty lady is sitting next to me. My attention is drawn to her when she pulls a small mirror out of her purse. I look at her and start telling her, albeit non-verbally: You ain’t going to start admiring your image on that mirror in the church, are you? She defies my disapproval and places the mirror in front of her face. She tenderly strokes her face with her fingers as if she is removing a foreign object. She takes less than ten seconds and then puts back the mirror in the purse. I assuage my initial disapproval with a sly smile as I withdraw my gaze from her.

I am still busy disapproving what she has just done. I have a list of reasons why she didn’t have to do that:

i) she ought to have done that at home;
ii) she shouldn’t be preoccupied with her image to the extent that it distracts her from the proceedings in the church;
iii) that face is already flawless and beautiful, what is she jittery about. There was actually no spot on it.
iv) inside a church, and the service is on! It looks odd indeed for something like that.

“That was for you!" A voice interrupted me.

My first reaction: What! For me? There is nothing positive in what the lady has done!

And that is how we usually miss the point. God does not rely on ‘positive’ things according to our judgment to teach His lessons. Whether it is positive, negative or neutral, God uses anything He chooses to teach important lessons.

It is almost as if someone is talking to me live. The inner voice calls upon me to take notes from the lesson the lady has just taught. You see, it takes two teachers (the lady and the inner voice) to help me understand the lesson:

i) She ought to have done that at home
Yes, she did. She stood behind her big mirror and worked on her image. She is not the kind of lady that would jump out of the house without making sure that she looks good. Nevertheless, the fact that she checked her image at home doesn’t mean something may not suddenly show up on her face. Moreover, you don’t check your face because you necessarily know something is there, rather, you check it in case something is there.

The spiritual lesson: The fact that I checked my image in the Mirror (the Bible) in the house doesn’t mean I don’t check again in the course of the day. I don’t only check my spiritual image when there is a problem. I service my image for purposes of ‘maintenance.’

ii) she shouldn’t be preoccupied with her image to the extent that it distracts her from the proceedings in the church.
Ladies are known to multitask. She can check her face and still follow the proceedings.

The spiritual lesson: I am challenged to get so preoccupied with my spiritual image that I check the Mirror so often. The more I do this, the more I get distracted from the proceedings in the world.

iii) That face is already flawless and beautiful, what is she jittery about. There was actually no spot on it.

The spiritual lesson: The lady may have been taking care of her external image, Christ wants us to take care of our internal image. We may look flawless to people observing us from the sides, but we know that we need to hang on the Word to continue refreshing and renewing our mind.

iv) Inside a church, and the service is on! It looks odd indeed for something like that.

The spiritual lesson: Just as the lady pulled our her mirror in an ‘odd place”, I am challenged to pull out my Bible in ‘odd places.’ When I got saved, I had an insatiable hunger for the Word of God. After teaching my lessons, I would ask a student to place a chair and a table under a tree for me. I would sit there and read my Bible intensively. Recently, I was sitting in a bus and as is my custom, I opened my Bible and started reading—God gave me a unique insight about The Eleventh Hour

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