Community and Clothes

So apparently i have a few new followers, welcome guys appreciate it.

So two things one the church weekend away, and two clothes. Yep you heard me right and i promise it won't be a rant.

So numero uno.
This weekend the church shipped itself off to Quantock Lodge in the Quantock hills (near Bridgewater.) I love church holidays, the community building is just great. Lots of stuff happened and was talked about that was great.
I loved discussing the greatness of Harry Potter and exploring what holiness meant. Discussing the virtue of the word of God being the bible vs the virtue of the word of God being Jesus and what that means. Playing games, having moments of stillness and quite contemplation. And all that comes with that.

But this is not what stood out the most for me. For me it was the lack of anger i felt, even when a certain member was incredibly rude to me. I was happy and content. But mostly it was that sense of unity.

2 young people started a puzzle on the saturday night, an incredibly complicated one and couldn't finish it before bedtime. They informed myself and another person that we could do some more but not finish it so we started and then found ourselves struggling to leave it to go up to bed. The next day we started on the puzzle again and found that other people had joined us. By the time we had left most people from the church had been involved with the puzzle.

Honestly it was beautiful, everyone bringing their knowledge and skills of jigsaw puzzles, bringing fresh eyes too it and joining in with the conversation around the table. Something so simple had bought the church together. A really good moment for us, a real moment of communitas.

Numero dos

today i am in oxford for my worship and spirituality module and during the day the subject of what we wear to church came up. Now i am the kinda girl who is incredibly comfortable in her baggy jeans and varying t-shirts, shirts, tops. All appropriate whist not making me un-relatable to the young people i work with. Basically i go for comfort and stylish whilst not going ott on "style." Or something like that. Whatever it is i put in minimal effort to make myself presentable. But even with this i find myself leaning towards the idea of "sunday best." That one day a week, the sabbath you dress up for God.

The argument against is this idea of coming as you are, that God knows us and loves us and accepts us for who we are. Not only that but God wants an honest version of us, especially in worship as worship is about God not how good we look.

Yet I like this idea of reverence, or respect, a God who is great and awe-inspiring and someone whom has blessed us. And this idea of "sunday best" being a part of revering and respecting God.

I always dress up just a little for church, not massively so, which is very clear, but enough that i feel like i have made an effort for God. And i like it, because we have lost our sense of awe or realising that God really deserves respect and focus more on this accesible God who love us and wants to be our friend. Thats not wrong because it is true but God is also the maker of the world, ageless, timeless, all powerful and unfathomable so i don't know, maybe every now and then we need to remind ourselves that God commands our respect and a simple way of doing that is every now and then dressing as if He was the Lord of Lords and King of Kings

Just a thought really.

Just seen Thor for the 2nd time. i love me a superhero!

Night folks