Day of Worship!

WHASSUP GRACE COLLEGE?!? :)

Here I am, happy as a clam (are they happy, really? ;-), newly in awe of our Beautiful God after yesterday's Day of Worship. For those who don't know, once a semester Grace College has a morning completely devoted to worship: classes are canceled, and all students gather in the OCC for 3 hours of...*shhhh* always a surprise!

This Day of Worship focused on the Church's unification. We as a student body experienced church unified that morning: We worshipped with music together; We listened to a time of teaching together; We were given time to just laugh and and visit with each other plus reconcile with people on campus we are at odds with; We prayed for each other's needs, the needs of the universal church, and the needs of the world we live in; We took communion together after taking time to reflect, pray and be silent before God; We "broke bread" together with the clever idea of box lunches distributed from Alpha Dining; And finally, we cared for each other's needs with the use of a donation station that acted as an offering/Goodwill for students to give to or take from.

What a captivating idea! Now, my experience has been that there are a few students who take extremes on Day of Worship...some love it no matter what goes on, some save up skips for it so they can sleep in; some use it to "fill up" on God so they can be fine till next time. Others come to just mope in the back, others are front and center with hands raised the entire time. I for one am not always a huge fan of Day of Worship just for the sake of it...there have been a couple times that Grace hasn't done very well with planning relative student topics or activities for the day; and I can't STAND when Day of Worship appears manufactered. You know what I mean, just an image-driven routine (like a specific worship song specifically placed to make you start crying, etc etc)...

But what I needed, and got yesterday, in Day of Worship spring '09 was an oasis of healing and love with my brothers and sisters. I was given the precious gift of time to refresh my thirsty soul with focus on the Lover of my Soul; and I caught a glimpse of Church in relationship, as a beautiful living identity, the Bride of Christ! It has been a long time since I've actually wanted to be counted in with "the church". But now... Let's DO church, people of God!!! :)

Your sister,
Elly