This morning was my first corporate worship setting since
I’ve been back home and I completely lost it. I absolutely could not contain
myself.
Tears..
and tears..
and more tears kept uncontrollably pouring down my
face.
One of the first songs we sang had the lyrics, “There will
be no One like You, and no One besides You.. You alone are worthy of all
praise.” The only thing I could think about was a particular little girl that
caught my eye a few weeks ago at a Buddhist temple in the mountains of northwestern
Thailand..
A cute little girl, she was. She couldn’t have been more
than six or seven years old. Her mom gave her the flower and a sheet of paper
with the prayer she needed to recite. The mother took the little girl’s hand
and led her to the part of the temple they were supposed to walk around three
times that would magically wipe away all of her faults and sins. She didn’t
want to do it and even resisted participating in this routine act, but her
mother leaned down and said something to her in Thai, I would imagine probably
along the lines of “we just have to do this real quick and then we can leave.”
Sure enough, they did their worship-routine and were on their way…
I don’t have to worship.
No one is forcing me.
My Father’s
love for me does not depend on
how many times I come to the “holy place”
to
worship Him; that won’t make Him love me
any more or any less.
But out of love
and thanksgiving, I want to worship my God.
After all that God has brought me
through and everything He has saved me from, I can’t think of anything I want
to do more than worship the One who’s worthy of it all.
While at the temple, we asked one of the monks about the
rituals and routines that were taking place at this particular temple. To be
honest with you, all these people looked like robots.. Just going through the
motions. After the monk told us everything that the people had to do to worship
Buddha and to be cleansed, we asked him a question. “So do you ever feel any
different after doing all of that?” And I will never forget his answer… He looked
down and replied, “No.”
That moment was a point in my life that marked my heart and
ruined me a little more for the Gospel than I thought possible.
I worship a God that I delight in bringing praise…
A God of
love and grace…
Of mercy and goodness…
Every time I worship my God something
inside of me burns and every time I worship my Savior I can’t help but fall
more in love with Him. I can tangibly feel His love when I’m in His presence
and there’s seriously no other place I would rather be. Sometimes I don’t have
to say anything when I spend time with my God and even without any words He
knows the way to my heart because He made me with a hole inside that only He
can fill…
My God knows me.
People have asked me why I spend all of my school breaks
going on mission trips. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Why don’t
you just stay home and rest? You have the rest of your life to go..”
I go because of that little girl.
She needs me now, not in a
few years.
Now.
Every person I saw laying those incense down before Buddha need
the Truth.
They need hope.
They need unconditional love.
They need grace..
They
need the Gospel.
And I’m not going to wait until I’m finished with school to do
something for God…
