LEAP Class: Thursday, September 28, 2006

Good Morning

This week's reading:

This week, we want to read Chapter 8 -- Applaud God, Loud and Often, and to do the questions for this chapter on pages 183 - 185.

In the questions for Chapter 8 on pages 183-185, there is an interesting set of questions that start with the statement -- "Worship humbles the smug. By the same token, worship lifts the deflated." The questions that follow ask about your own experiences with that effect. When did you have a worship experience where you felt humbled? How does worship lift the deflated? What worship songs or moments lift you when you're deflated?

I think that it is easy to see how worship can lift us when we are down --- of course, as I write that, I realize that when you're deflated, you don't have any expectations that anything will lift you up, so coming to worship doesn't look like an obvious solution. Sometimes, doing anything at all is a struggle when you're deflated and down, and coming to worship seems like one more obligation that is weighing you down. But God is there, waiting for you, and best of all, there is always something you find in worship that you can take away with you -- a song, a verse -- something to help you when you are away from worship to help lift you just a bit, to make you just a little stronger, when you're feeling down.