A formula to perfection

So, today I went to chapel. A couple from Thailand led us in a traditional Thai worship service.

It was a beautiful service. The music and songs and dance were all beautiful. As they played their music and taught us how to dance and sing before the Lord....I realized how very stiff and starched we are here in North America. We looked nothing like them....they flowed with grace and beauty, much like watching a butterfly float through the air....and then there was us...

We clunked along...moving our hands and bodies as if they weighed 100 lbs and our joints did not move in a fluid motion. We looked more like a robot.

They allow their bodies to feel the music...becoming one with the music...an extension of it, flowing out of it. We on the other hand are trying to listen to the music and calculate moves to the music.

I have children and I have watched every episode of SpongeBob Squarepants that has ever been created. There is one episode that sums up what I saw today....this is what SpongeBob usually looks like:

He has bumps and holes, not at all perfect...

But one day he decides he is too different, and he decides to become normal....and so, instead of being his different self, he works to be "normal.' Soon, his appearance begins to change to match his actions....bland and boring. Here is what his appearance changes to:

He is smooth and perfect...

I feel like we in North America have worked very hard to become "normal" in our worship....not wanting to be different or allow ourselves to "feel" anything. No, we have a calculation and a formula for "perfect, normal" worship. And so....we trudge along and soon...our worship begins to look like "normal SpongeBob."