Turn Around
Worship and the love of God go beyond the stereotypes that we assume as children. They go beyond what people who do not grow up in the Church think. Those unknowing of what worship is, or what transformation means, do not realize that it is a life-changing event. Last week I was able to share a time of ‘worship’ with my Church family as we sang and showed love to Christ together. The kicker is that ‘worship’ is not just the music we sing. It is the lives we live, the time we spend in prayer, meditation, and communication with God. It is the experiences we share with others for them to understand who God is and why we believe in the Trinity. As a kid, I did not understand these aspects and thought people were silly for wanting to believe in something they could not see. This is crazy, as I would live my life in a bubble that would eventually burst and I would become part of an evil, led by my brother who would follow the footsteps of my parents. I remember the days we woke up and said we would never follow them.
Years passed as we grew from a boy who went to church camp and me, the older brother, who wanted nothing to do with God; just to exchange roles. I would come to know God more and He would end up in rehab and be one of the few who is still to this day clean and sober. All the knowledge I had could not keep him from going south and for me to run from my problems. What’s the moral of all this; people do change, and God is forgiving!!!! Not only did my brother change in a bad way but he would come back to what is good. I would envy all the experiences he would have only to come to know that there was a reason I would walk a different path. I did not need as hard a slap on the face as he did, but I would needed a lesson in humility. Think of the prodigal son, the biggest story was about the return of the lost sheep, the one who needed a hard slap. No one looks at the older brother, and little is mentioned other than this:
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:25-32 ESV)
After coming to know Christ better I understood the multiple lessons behind this ,and not just to forgive but some people need a bigger slap, and those who stay on the good path are to celebrate but do not need to be reminded of the greatness they do. When I finally understood this, I forgave my brother and began a new relationship with him, something I could never do before. Even a leader of the church at the time told me to “just stop” because I was always angry with all he had done.
We cannot let those around us affect our sanctification, yet was what I was doing. Then I understood that we “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) When we change because of the world, we are not showing the power we have been given by God, but when we change the world around us, we use and show the power others can have if they only accept the one true God.
