Upside-Down Sunday

{Written on the last Sunday of 2013 as we completed our Christmas travels...}

My kids won't be the pastor's kids today and I won't be the pastor's wife. The pastor, won't even be acting in his role as pastor if, in fact, the role can be separated from the man or from any of the rest of us for that matter. We are visiting a church in another state while on vacation, large yet welcoming, we will simply be filling a pew and worshiping The Lord as His children, nothing more, nothing less. At home on the front pew, under the weight of expectation, imagined or otherwise, things are sometimes a little different. 

We had not exactly planned on visiting this church while we were vacationing away from home, thinking we might return to our home on Saturday and sneak into our favorite church in the town where we live and worship with our own family of faith. Instead, this morning we travel in the opposite direction wearing the best of the clothes we have in our suitcases. 

Blue jeans and tennis shoes are involved, not our normal for a Sunday morning and some of us feel it keenly though one of us is confident that he could indeed preach a hot-hearted sermon in his current attire. I assure him that I do not share his confidence in the matter at all. I'm not under the impression that our clothes matter terribly much in our worship this morning or any other morning for that matter. And our attire is absolutely not enough to discourage our participation in even the most traditional of environments.

In addition to our non-traditional wardrobe, there is not a Bible made of paper to be found among us. Oh, we are equipped with about 14 digital versions so we won't be empty-handed, but we were definitely out of our wheelhouse. 

We've just come out of the worship service and here's what I know...

1. It is possible to worship sincerely wearing blue jeans. {I knew this already, really I did, I just didn't grow up that way and honestly, I'm concerned my Grandma is looking down from Heaven shaking her head in disapproval!}
2. The Bible reads just fine from a screen, though I did miss the sound of the pages turning.  I was able to find my place faster, however.
3. I loved sitting with my whole family during the whole service this morning in the pew, an occurrence that never happens at home.
4. Six pairs of blue jeans in a row certainly fill a pew. I like that too.
5. If the children realize you have candy in your purse (because they caught you sneaking some for yourself) you will be as busy during the offering time as you would be if you were one of the ushers.
6. Four kids and one mamma can put away a fair amount of candy over the course of a sermon.
7. If you sit on the back pew (oh YES we did) you can exit the sanctuary quickly...unless you kindly force ask your family to pause for a picture or two...or three.
8. No matter how wonderful the church service was where you might be visiting…it’s always sweeter when you return home to worship with your own church family who know you so well…and love you anyway.

Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us… All who have first given themselves to the Lord, should, as speedily as possible, also give themselves to the Lord’s people. How else is there to be a Church on the earth? If it is right for anyone to refrain from membership in the Church, it is right for everyone, and then the testimony for God would be lost to the world! ~C.H. Spurgeon