This morning (Sunday) we woke to a crystal clear blue sky and sun, got dressed, had some cereal and went to church.  What a great time of celebration and refreshing!  There have been times lately when I pondered on the value of the weekly worship service, is it really serving a purpose?  Does it help fulfill Christ’s commission to us?  Is it worth all the time and preparation?  Well, today I realized that although we can’t base our faith on emotion, emotion is a part of our faith and relationship with God and helps us reconnect to Him.  I was so encouraged and uplifted by the songs we sang, seeing other people worship alongside my family, the freedom to sing out and raise my hands, and hearing God’s Word spoken boldly and passionately.  The lesson we heard was right on and was such a great reminder:  God is for us.  When we are hurting we sometimes feel abandoned or when things don’t turn out the way we planned we feel hurt, or that God’s not listening.  His wisdom appears as foolishness to us oftentimes but we have to remember that God’s foolishness is wiser than any man’s best wisdom.  Great truth!   The speaker was engaging and funny, which I also thanked God for, because our girls were clearly connected throughout and seemed to soak it in.

We experienced something new in the worship time:  the speaking of tongues and the interpretation of it.  I have never experienced that.  I’ve been in services at pentecostal churches where everyone seemed to be speaking in tongues but no one explained anything or interpreted so all it seemed to be was a frenzied chaotic mess…not something God used to bless or instruct anyone.  This was much different.  Following one of the worship songs, one woman began speaking in what sounded like a different language.  When she did the band got quiet, all the people quieted and we just listened.  It lasted about half a minute.  Right after she finished another lady in a different part of the room “interpreted” and shared a word from God with us about having faith and hope in spite of disappointments or unrealized dreams, very impassioned and strong.  After her another woman shared briefly that when we don’t understand what God is doing, it doesn’t mean God isn’t working on our behalf – the our future and hope is in His hands.  How cool that these two words from God were exactly what the preacher was going to speak about!  Instead of feeling uncomfortable or weird, I felt like it was a special holy moment, like God was truly speaking through those ladies to each of us.

The girls were handed some money from their great-grandmother last night so of course we needed to make a trip to the mall.  Now we’re home and getting ready to have some pizza.  It’s our last night on vacation and I hope it goes by slowly.  We head home tomorrow – back to routine, back to “normal” life.   At least we’ve had this long weekend getaway with each other, John’s family, and God.