la iglesia

went to church tonight. I sometimes have a hard time getting excited to go to church here. It's at 7 o'clock on Sunday nights so it's my last chance to have a weekend. It's also all in Spanish and it takes lots of energy for me to concentrate enough on the words, let alone what the meaning is behind them. All the songs are in Spanish with no words printed anywhere so I can't even really enjoy the singing, and the sermons, when I do understand them, seem so simple that I wonder why I even need to be there.

All this to say, I went into church feeling slightly obligated to go (never a good start in my opinion), but feeling like maybe I could write a blog (yes, I actually thought about my blog as a reason to go to church!) to describe the simplicity of the church service and how maybe I could see it as a good thing that we're reminded that our faith is supposed to be a childlike one. I even thought of starting my blog off with something like- "God is love. No matter how many times we hear this statement, it still needs to be said."

So, I'm sitting there thinking about all these things to make into a fantastic blog when our pastor tells us to turn to 1 John 4:7-8 ... which also happened to be the verses chapel was on this Wednesday so I taught my kids the song that I know with that verse all this week. 1 John 4:7-8......

Queridos hermanos, amémonos los unos a los otros, porque el amor viene de Dios, y todo el que ama ha nacido de Él y lo conoce. Él que no ama no conoce a Dios, porque Dios es amor.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone that loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

I kind of felt like I had a little smack on the wrist from God... I think I try really hard not to feel superior and above the people that I live with in a social or intellectual level, because I think people from the United States tend to have that attitude when going to other countries. I've noticed it in myself on occasions and really try to squelch it because I know there is so much I can learn from the people I live and work with. But what about church? I have this snobby snobby attitude about how I worship- and how worship should be done. I scoff at the simplicity of the messages and act like I am more spiritual and know everything the pastor is going to share already. I think it's cute that the men and women dance alongside the kids, but I even have a kind of attitude problem on that- like, we would never do that in our church because it's not appropriate, and really... the parents should get their children under control so no one is disrupted while 'worshiping' sighhhh... I remember one day at Westchester a little girl was dancing in the aisle and I wanted so badly to join her- sometimes I think dancing and throwing your arms around and kicking your heels up in the air is the only way to express how joyful I feel about God but since I know it wouldn't be allowed, I instead got it into my head that other people that act that way are in the wrong. What a terrible way to think! I really think God tried to teach me something today in my churchy attitude. Shelly and I decided we're going to start a dance club at Westchester so... prepare yourselves :) Maybe not... but I think in all areas of life I definitely make lines and boundaries of what's acceptable behavior and what's not... obviously those lines and boundaries can be very very good things but... sometimes I think living outside of your comfort zone allows you to see when you need to break those boundaries and realize why you put them up in the first place.