Monday, July 30, 2007

Suppressing Joy?

In our Small Group last night we were looking at 2 Corinthians 3 where Paul unveils some personal insight. Of course, our conversations took on some personal insights of their own.

A comment was made about the spontaneous clapping that started during one particular part of the 10:30 assembly at Antioch and a question was asked about how could anyone object to that, but there was a couple of people that did by their actions. That took off with some additional comments about people and children that were spontaneous and that it just seemed so natural and appropriate. There was some that was displeased with the clapping and its timing. Although, we clap a lot, we clap with many of our frequently sung songs. But yesterday was different for some reason and I guess it was because the clapping occurred during the communion portion of assembly. There were people who sat down, or was heard saying, "if this is going to happen, I'm not coming back."

God gives us so many gifts and talents. But it seems to me that we suppress those gifts and talents because of Puritan traditions that we have accepted as part of religious history. But it hit me - How would God look at us (at me) for suppressing someones talents, joy and the Spirit? The Spirit is a gift as a child of God and part of the joy of being a child of God and a talent that God has given us. Why would we ever consider suppressing that? Wouldn't that be like someone giving you a car and you telling them thank you, I'll take the car but I don't want the engine, or a wheel or two, or maybe the steering wheel. Whoa ....... You wouldn't ever do anything like that, so why do we do that with God? If God was the person giving you a car, none of us would say that we didn't want the whole thing. Yet, in a generalized way, are we doing that?

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