Laura Crosby

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Communion Meltdown?

September 28, 2011 /

“We’re at church and Maggie is having a meltdown. 

We just got a full page of single-spaced instructions on how to take communion here.  She’s sure she’s gonna make a mistake and wreck everything.” 

I got this text with the accompanying picture from our daughter Katy who was visiting a new church with Maggie in D.C. where they are living together.

Then last week we were visiting them, and arrived right after their second visit to this church.  Communion is served every week and again, they were full of energy recounting their communion experience.

With great animation and hand gestures they said, “Everyone has to walk down to the front of the sanctuary, following the diagram and then it’s like a communion smorgasbord with 89,000 choices you have to make!”

On the fly! 

In front of PEOPLE! 

While thinking about JESUS!

Drink or dip, wine or juice, gluten free wafer or bread…

With all these choices, Katy mistakenly ate her bread before dipping, then drank from cup she thought was wine but was grape juice.  Communion fail.

How can anyone reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s abundant grace when they’re worrying about DOING the wrong thing to celebrate it?

According to Maggie, “You’ve really gotta work for communion at this place!”  Ironic isn’t it?  Work to receive grace?

A friend of hers suggested she might want to do a couple of practice run-throughs before she came back again.

We were laughing at this experience, but I couldn’t help think of a friend of mine who had been in line to take communion once and watched as the girl in front of her systematically plucked piece after piece of the cut squares of bread off the serving plate and stacked them on top of each other in her hand.

My friend thought, “She can’t do that!  You’re only supposed to take ONE!  That’s not the way it’s done! Where are the communion police when you need them??”

Then it was like the Lord tapped her on the shoulder and said “This is what this meal is all about – lavish grace without limit.  Offered at great cost, but free for the taking.”

We’re all beggars in need of bread, but perhaps this woman had a deeper sense of how desperately she depended on Jesus’ forgiveness.

Anyway, all this has got me thinking about our awareness of our own sinfulness and need for grace, whether we follow the directions for taking communion right or not.

Have you ever stressed over taking communion?  Is communion conducive to paying attention to God’s work in your life?                                                                                      Have you ever made a “mistake” taking communion?

Awake My Soul

September 26, 2011 /

I’m not a hipster.  Not even close.  I’m always consulting with my daughters to make sure what I’m wearing doesn’t look like I’m the stereotypical un-cool homeschooled kid on the first day of public school.

So even though I know Mumford and Sons and love their song,“Awake my Soul”, I honestly didn’t think of it in choosing the domain for this blog until some of my hipster friends pointed it out.  It was what they thought of immediately.

I was thinking of Awake my Soul in an eyes-wide-open-aha-oh-I-almost missed-that-burning-bush way.  But whatever.  I totally missed the cultural reference right off the bat.

Last summer was a more embarassing miss.   One morning I was teaching at church.  It was very early.  (I want you to remember that).  I had to stand up in front of a room full of people.  When we were done and people were leaving, I walked outside and glanced down.  There were two different sandals on my feet.  I know you’re thinking, “What sane person doesn’t pay attention to the shoes they’re putting on?  Or look in a mirror!?”  It was dark, ok?  And to my credit (if there’s any credit to be gotten here), they were both brown sandals.

And then there was the day a couple of years ago I left the car running and locked my keys inside.  For an hour.  While I was at Starbucks.  Again, paying attention?  Maybe not so much.

Last confession.  When I was a junior in college (I KNOW you’re not gonna believe this but it’s absolutely true), I once put a cup of salt instead of a teaspoon into a recipe of lasagna.  Flake?  Mentally challenged cook?  A.D.D.?  You make the call, but clearly I wasn’t paying attention.

Why in the world would I share these humiliating experiences with you?

  • I’m telling my deepest darkest secrets so you will too.  Ok maybe not.  But I really do want to be authentic so you will see this as a safe place where you can be honest.  And I REALLY want you to know (in case there’s any doubt) how much I don’t have it together.
  •  I really love the philosophy we should take God seriously, but ourselves not so much.
  • These “misses” are minor, but how much am I missing the many significant ways that God wants to delight, convict, amaze, whisper to me each day in His desire to make me more like Him?

The refrain of the Mumford and Sons song says                                                                 Awake my soul                                                                                                                                    For you were made to meet your Maker                                                                                     And you were made to meet your Maker.

I think one of the ways we pay attention and meet our Maker is by encouraging each other – sharing our own experiences of seeing AND missing God.                      What about you?  

Have you ever made an embarrassing mistake because you weren’t paying attention?

What helps you pay attention to God’s work in your life? 

What discourages you from paying attention?

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