lifting my hands and spinning around!
Yesterday was the first time I ever took communion at a church that wasn’t my home church. But it sure feels like home. It was the first service of the semester, and I think I can literally say “Oh my God”, because it was amazing. PR talked about getting to know the Holy Spirit as a person rather than some abstract being, how it was “advantageous” for us to have Jesus leave in order that good ol’ HS could come, and how we should ask Him to fill us with joy, passion, strength, love, everything. And the praise session immediately after that showed us, or at least me, just how powerful the Holy Spirit could be.
I often wonder why my home church is so conservative with praise. I know that the whole thing is to literally do that - give praise to God through song - but by making everything so strict and solemn, traditional hymnals with only piano and organ accompaniment, standing on the first song only and sitting still on the rest; it makes it hard to give God your all. It’s stiffling. But here, I know that no one’s watching, no one’s judging, it’s just me singing my heart to God, no restraints. And it fills me with an immeasurable, beyond fulfilling sense of absolute, pure joy.
We closed out praise with a song by Charlie Hall called “Marvelous Light.” After singing it once through, PR took the mic and said something like “So, we all sang this line *points to slideshow*. ‘Lift my hands and spin around.’ Yeah, well not one of you did that. I know you may be worried about feeling silly or looking weird, but really open your heart to the Holy Spirit, and really ask for that joy. We’re going to sing through this again, and I can assure you that when we get to this part, if you don’t follow the song, you’ll be the only one not doing it. And you’ll be missing out.”
I’m pretty sure I saw the entire church spinning. And it made me smile so much I might’ve cried.
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