It is well with my soul

It took me a couple of days to write this... long 12 hr shift last night prevented any blogging!! So even though I wish I'd been able to write this on Sunday or Monday, I still needed to get it out there. Better late than never, I guess!

Sunday night was one of the best evenings I have had in a very long time. Seriously. I don't really remember anything profound from the sermon (sorry, Mike). But it was what happened after that was so amazing.

I better back up and give you some context...

Sarah and I were talking on Sunday morning about growing up at Hope and the things we miss. Particularly we got into a long and interesting discussion about the use of hymnals and the spontaneity (or lack thereof) during breaking of bread. It was great to realize that there was somebody else who felt the same way I did about all this! I knew when I moved back to Seattle that the church had changed, and that it wasn't the same Hope I was used to. The building had been sold, there was now a full-time pastor, it had gotten smaller, etc. It took me a couple of months to put my finger on the things that bothered me, though. I realized that it wasn't really as much of a traditional assembly anymore. Now there are people who will point out that I've spent the last 12 years attending (note that I never became a member, just stayed a "regular attender"... but that's another topic for another post!) a gigantic non-denominational mega-church. I think that is why I couldn't figure it out at first... Hope is so much more traditional than COS, yet it almost wasn't traditional enough for me. Might sound strange, and I hope nobody is offended by me saying this... but I didn't like it. As my brother might say, "Something's changed, and I DON'T LIKE IT!" Haha. :-) Anyway.

So Sarah and I were discussing this on Sunday as we walked around Green Lake. We came to the conclusion that we wished things were more like a traditional assembly... maybe not super-conservative, but at least we should have hymnals available! (Of course, we also decided that since we seem to be getting more conservative as we've gotten older, that maybe a few years down the road we'll be wearing headcoverings and using the old blue book with no music. Never say never! :-) )I was excited to learn that this coming Sunday, the hymnals will be making a reappearance and the music will be all hymns (!!), thanks to Sarah's brilliant idea.

A couple of hours after this whole lengthy discussion, I head to church. And I was pleasantly surprised when Mike started us off with a random hymn during the Lord's Supper... just like the old days. Sarah and I sneaked a smile at each other, mostly out of shock. :-) Then I almost fell off my chair when Mark started us off on a second one! Wow! Anyway, so we got our wish for a more spontaneous breaking of bread. But that wasn't even the best part.

After the service, a group of us were hanging out, re-discussing this topic. There was a stack of hymnals sitting there since the music team was practicing for next week, and before you knew it, we were re-living the old days. (GPP is far superior to TPI, I'll have you know. And if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, then you did not grow up at HBF in the '80s and early '90s!) I don't know how it started, but we spontaneously began singing hymns acapella. Yes, a small group of 20-somethings (ok and a few teenagers plus some parents who joined in) were singing traditional hymns, simply for the sheer joy of worship. Just standing around, singing. It was the one of the coolest experiences I have had in a long time. I can't explain it, but it was awesome. We just kept going on and on for over an hour! For those of you who know me (and obviously you do if you are reading this), you might be surprised to hear that I was singing out loud in such a small group. But yet there was no fear or self-consciousness... it was simply amazing. I came away from church on Sunday completely encouraged and just feeling like God has brought me to this place, at this time, for a reason. And I can't wait for "Hymnal Sunday"! :-)

I encourage you to check out this blog post for more about this wonderful experience: http://oneyearboom.blogspot.com/2008/03/man.html
It gives another perspective on this spontaneous hymn-sing!

Funny little story... so during the worship time, one of Mike's slides for his sermon inadvertently got inserted between songs. Which wouldn't have been so bad except that it was a picture of a heavy-weight in tiny little shorts that said "Bad Boy" on them. Yeah, pretty funny. I commented to Sarah later that it never would have happened if we were using hymnals instead of powerpoint...

Here's the chorus of one that we didn't sing on Sunday, but has been stuck in my head ever since nevertheless. I found myself humming it out loud at work today... luckily my patient with dementia didn't seem to notice! Number 325 in the red book:

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul
When at the cross the Saviour made me whole
My sins were washed away
And my night was turned to day
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul