I was standing in worship tonight, and I had a startling clear moment where I thought like an atheist. Not that I suddenly stopped believing in God. But for one moment, I saw our worship service as it must look to someone who claims to believe God does not exist. We were laughable.
All of our singing and clapping and smiling and toe-tapping made us look like fools from that vantage point. We were singing to the air.
And I wondered what in that scene could possibly make an atheist so angry. If we are deluded imbeciles, why would the atheist care? Just leave us to our delusions and move on.
But, that is another post. When I came back to myself (Whew! Thank goodness for that!) I wondered how I would answer if someone asked how I knew I wasn’t just singing to the air.
The answer is pretty simple. It’s me.
Without the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work in my life, I would be worse than a deluded fool. I would be mean and angry and loud and irritating and very, very ugly. All the time. I have all those tendencies as it is, but the Jesus in me overcomes them on most days.
So, I sang a little louder tonight. And I clapped my hands a little more. Because we were singing “Power in the Blood,” and I know that it is true.
I saw you taking this picture tonight and was curious of it’s purpose 🙂 I have recently been thinking a lot about testimonies and am coming to the realization of how powerful they are.
And I thought you were too lost in the moment to notice, Josh. 🙂
Yes, beautiful. I believe because of what it’s done in me. Love it. (I also love those little moments of seeing through someone else’s eyes. I never want to get to place where I can’t even see or imagine the other person’s view.)
I thought of you in this moment, Seren. Because all the deep, theological discussions boil down to this for me. It’s like the man who told the religious leaders, “I don’t know all the answers to your questions. I only know I was blind, and now I see.”
Kathy, I especially honed in on your comment about why would an atheist be angry. You make a good point–why don’t they check us off their list and just move on. Are they angry because they lack the joy they see in us? Are they jealous of our joy? It’s not as if we are forcing them to do as we do.
Imagine someone getting angry because I like chocolate covered cherries and he doesn’t. That’s silly and dare I say an atheist would agree it’s silly. So maybe the question we could ask is “Why are you so angry that I choose to believe in God and you don’t?”
No matter what question we ask, the truth is that there is a spiritual force (Satan) behind atheism that hates God and seeks to destroy all that is of God. The atheist would disagree, of course.
That is true, Debra.