Church was fantastic on Saturday! The creative team, the worship group and the speaker (Margaret Ellis - always a legend) worked together in incredible harmony to explore the theme of passion. The worship flowed into a beautiful piece of original music and dance, into the talk, into some images on the screens, back to the talk, back into dance film. It was so eloquent and moving. Quite an impacting exploration of passion, where it comes from and where we're focusing it on...
I loved the poem woven through the music and talk:
"Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves.
When our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
When we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess,
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity.
And in our efforts to build new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes,
And to push us in the future in strength, courage, hope and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.
Amen."
Attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh
This poem is such a challenge when you live in a western suburb, in a beautiful city where the powers of darkness hide in materialism and apathy. I think I'm gonna meditate on it this week as I embark on a new season of study... xc