Joy!

Recently some friends of ours took us to a concert at a church in Archbold, Ohio for a tour titled “United We Stand.” Although I do love concerts, it didn’t sound appealing to me because I was nursing a sore back and “United We Stand” didn’t sound too appetizing at that point. United we sit, now there is a tour I could have really gotten behind! Dealing with the pain in my back my wife and I decided to join them anyway and make the most of this “date night.” Now, I am sure you are wondering why I would consider this a date night. Well, our usual “date nights” these days consist of getting out of the house without the kids and making a grocery run to our local one stop shopping center. So this concert was a treat none the less! The show was amazing. It consisted of five or so bands performing various kinds of Christian music, spanning all realms of music genre, but mainly rap and loud rock! But the treat for me actually came at the end of the show, not even the show, in the parking lot on the way to our car. A friend of ours had taken their two young daughters, one is probably 7 and one is probably 9 or 10. (If you are reading this and I was way off on ages…I’m sorry. I am not good with ages, I still think my kids aren’t teenagers!) So on the way out, the 7 year old was walking along side me and had commented on how loud the show was, and how she didn’t think people were allowed to be that noisy in church. Now if you know anything about me, I am far from legalistic when it comes to my faith. As a matter of fact, I am the complete opposite of legalistic and it has gotten me in trouble a few times amongst the Christian community. So as you can imagine, this comment from this 7 year old girl really made me smile. But on the other hand, it really bothered me. Not because I thought this girl was legalistic, or that her parents were, because I know her parents. It bothered me because I wondered where this little, innocent girl got such an ancient, and in my opinion, boring idea! Now please understand, I do understand the need for respect and piousness inside the sanctuary of the Lord. However, I do not think that Heaven is going to be some drab and boring get together of believers. After all, Jesus was a man of parties and get-togethers. So I can hardly believe that Heaven will lack loud music, dancing, and joy. But it brings me back to my original thought or question. Where do we get this boring opinion of church? Is it sewn into our DNA? Is it taught to us by our elders? Or maybe it is the way we pick up on how drab and sad many believers are that fill our churches today. When I look around churches I often do not see any joy or hope. This is supposed to be a place to get lifted up and encouraged, but instead you leave feeling like the life has been sucked out of you. Now I know, this is MY opinion and mine only I’m sure. But if this opinion is not correct or true, then explain to me the reason why most people that I encounter during the week that attend Sunday morning services are the same boring and joyless people on Wednesday as they are on Sunday? Again, this opinion is sure to ruffle feathers, but all you have to do is be honest with yourself and look around. And I am not insinuating that we all have to walk around looking like Bozo the Clown with a painted smile on our faces; life gets us down, I get it. But goodness folks, we supposedly have been given the greatest gift through Jesus that mankind could ever dream of and we walk around acting like our baby kitten was just hit by an airplane! No wonder why people don’t want what we have. If I judged my faith off of the way other people of faith acted, I would run from it; and I would run fast! So I beg of people to remember the sacrifice that was made for YOUR life. “Be joyful ALWAYS,” (emphasis mine) the author of Thessalonians tells us. Be: an action word. To be; a way of life. Joyful: the opposite of stoic and boring. Always: never stop!