Monday, October 10, 2011

The Right Place

"Would you like peanuts, biscotti, or trail mix?" she asks.


The gentleman next to me responds, "I want peanuts and then some M&M's, as well,...peanut M&M's that is."


"I'm sorry we don't have peanut M&M's."


"Then I don't want the M&M's, just the complimentary peanuts."


I like to help people enjoy their flight, so I contributed, "You know, you could just eat your peanuts and your M&M's at the same time and it would be like peanut M&M's."


"No, no." Without-a-doubt tone. "It's not the same, the peanuts need to be INSIDE the M&M's."


"I un-der-stand," I said sympathetically. If you can't be helpful at least be sympathetic.


Why is it better to worship in a Church rather than outside on the back lawn? Certainly not because peanuts are better inside M&M's. But if I'm going to be particular about having my M&M's pregnant with peanuts or bunching my empty hangers on the left side of the closet, I should probably give God a chance, as well, to have a few favorite places for favorite things. Christ chose to have the Last Supper in an upper room rather than picnic style. He took the trouble to lose his temper and whip the temple into a "house of prayer". Toss out the sacred structures and special places for prayer and half the Bible doesn't make sense. It's good to praise God everywhere but it's very good to worship in a sacred place; in God's opinion at least. Pray in church when you can.
  
So when someone asks me why I don't squat on a mountain on Sunday rather than kneel in a church, my answer is, "Don't ask me, ask Christ." It was his idea. If that's the way he likes his M&M's, I don't always ask why. I just look at my own particularities with places and try to say, "I understand."

2 comments:

  1. I like your insight, especially when using delicious treats to explain. My husband and I were just discussing the absence of kneelers in Protestant churches (I converted to Catholicism 2 yrs into our marriage and he remains Protestant). Is it the lack of the Blessed Sacrament that keeps our fellow Christians from hitting their knees? Even as a Protestant I felt that Christ was present spiritually...but if I truly knew He was there, then why didn't I feel the need to kneel? I know the answer to my own question. There's a reason why we have our worship time IN a church and it's the same reason there's kneelers in Catholic churches...because He's really there! Not kneeling would be like Moses not taking his sandals off before the burning bush.

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  2. Thanks! Yeah, I guess the first step to kneeling is having something worth kneeling to. Blessings on your recent conversion and on your marriage.

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