Room for everyone
Laura Digan
May 09, 2020
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Listen to this daily worship
John 14: 1-4 (NRSVA)
1 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’
I was one of those kids at Primary School who was a bit of a nerd! I was in the school quiz team and I always knew the answer to the teacher’s questions. I prided myself on getting 100 percent each week in the class spelling tests. In Primary Seven we had the Headmistress as our class teacher. She was nearing retirement and was very strict.
I remember one week at the start of the school year I got my spelling test back and she had marked some of the words wrong—even though I had spelled them correctly. I politely questioned the teacher about this, saying I had spelled the words correctly. She told me that my handwriting was messy and so she couldn’t make out what the letters were. She then forced me to stand in front of the whole class at the blackboard and write out the words, over and over and over again, shouting at me that the letters were still not neat enough.
Thirty years later I can still hear the laughter of my fellow pupils and feel the humiliation.
Sometimes church can seem like that; they like what you are saying but they don’t like how you say it. Or you are too colourful, or you aren’t traditional enough or you shouldn’t be dancing to the music. Or your theology doesn’t fit here. You are just too much, or you aren’t enough to belong.
But our God created a world full of diversity. There is a place for everyone and room for all forms of expression.
PRAYER:
Creator God,
Help us to see and appreciate the diversity within our world,
Help us to see and value each other’s unique gifts
Help us to encourage each other in our faith, no matter how it is expressed.
Help me to see my own faults
Help me to see other’s needs
Help me to see and feel your presence Lord
Amen.
INVITATION: Today think of someone you have recently told, or wanted to tell, to be quiet. Consider going back to ask them what they were trying to say.
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