Passion

Today was hard. First, I don't enjoy having gobs of people asking me about the trip. I love sharing stories with my close friends, those who I know understand me and understand my feelings and thoughts. For the rest of the world, well, I wrote the blog for a reason. So, my first day back at church was a bit of a bombardment, and it was hard not to snap.

The other hard part was the stagnant, complacent, lack of feeling that was church today. Please don't misunderstand me: I adore my church. It is a wonderful place to grow in the Word and to plug in to different ways of serving others. However, after spending my last few church services in a country where it seems no one goes to church out of obligation but out of pure determination to praise their Maker for another day, the lack of enthusiasm for the service, from the congregation to the pastor and his sermon, was more than I could handle today. I'm not sure why Zambian churches have so much passion for worship. Perhaps it's because so many of the folks literally live day to day and must depend on the Lord for survival. That's not the case in the States most of the time. We forget all we have to be grateful for. I don't know; maybe Satan just has a stronger hold on America and its churches right now. I'm not the expert, but I left church disgusted today. Isaac was too; he couldn't handle watching family after family leave before the service was over, like they couldn't wait for one more praise song to get to their cars. We spent a lot of time in prayer for our country today, asking for renewed passion for worship and learning.