Worship Complete

This weekend I’m facalitating a camp with a group of children ranging in age from 13 -18. The group of children have been identified by one of the local welfare organisations and normally they bring groups of kids to remove them a bit from their day to day problems and “bless” them with a weekend doing fun stuff.

These kind of weekends are always emotionally draining for me as you share your heart and joy with them hoping that it would somehow be a blessing to them, only to find that on the Sunday afternoon that the reality of the place where they are going back to are almost instantly stealing the bit of joy that they might have experienced the weekend. Even when you have shared the message of Christ with them over the time of the weekend it seems as if the message is also clouded by the immense oppressive environment where they are returning to.

The question that then plagues my mind is how do I present this gospel so that it would not sound like what they have heard probably so many times, as the church in general find it easy to “share” the gospel to the poor, and even many times with a indirect promise of a “better” life. I believe this is the reason why I’ve found in my travels as a missionary and being involved in the lives of poor people, that the general assumption in the minds of poor people is that if I give my heart to the Lord, He will give relief. Due to the immense need that these people face, they grab at anything that might relieve their physical need in their desperation to rise above their circumstances.

*sigh* *pause*

How then do I present my message that will make sure that they see their spiritual need as more important, in their mind, as their physical need. In answer to my own question I would say that firstly I can’t do it at all. In the more “comfortable” christian life we have been somewhat dependant on having a speaker/leader/pastor that can theologically “convince” us of our spiritual condition and then from there we respond, without implying that this is the motive of the preacher. I know we all trust that the Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of the people we address, but still we tend to add our own capability to it.

Then I might find myself at a place where I would like to impart a certain “hope” to the people, but once again, it is the words of mere man who will not change the fact that I go to bed hungry, stop the domestic violence, stop the substance abuse and stop the emotional and/or physical abuse. By this time it seems an awry task to present a message that needs to challenge these conditions and it becomes more and more “dwarfed” by the magnitude of the physical reality.

BUT!!! There is a different reality. One of which the writer speaks in Romans 8:18 –  ”I am of the opinion that there is no comparison between the pain of this present time and the glory which we will see in the future. – BBE”. Even though it might seem for the human nature somewhat “useless”, this verse blessed me very much this morning: Mat 11:5  ”The blind see; those who were not able to, are walking; lepers are made clean; those who were without hearing, now have their ears open; the dead come to life again, and the poor have the good news given to them.”

So, irrelevant of my intellectual understanding, I will share the Gospel of Hope with the poor and trust that the Spirit of God will confirm it in the lives of these people who are conveniently forgotten about from day to day by the “regular” community. May they find the riches of Him and may He be so real to them that “nothing can compare to the promise I have in You”, to quote a well  known song that is being sung by churches all over the world, but then it stays true that it is easier to sing these words when my life is not that much challenged by circumstances.

Lord may our worship be in spirit and truth.

Louw