Be Careful Little Eyes...

Many of us remember the song, "Be Careful Little Eyes What You See". If you have a minute I'd like you to watch this video and then I'll make a few observations of my own.



Pretty interesting phenomenon isn't it? I think there is some application from this exercise we need to make regarding our experience in Churches of Christ.

I wonder what we might be blind to on Sunday mornings? Most of us who grew up in Churches of Christ were taught about the "5 Acts of Worship." And that for worship to be Worship, it must include Singing (with the emphasis on acapella), praying, preaching, The Lord's Supper and giving.

The phenomenon illustrated in this video may explain why many of our struggles today continue to be centered around what and how we do what we do on Sunday morning "during worship." If we are busy counting the elements of worship with a particular emphasis on how they are done, I can see why many become upset when someone suggests there is something deeper about worship that is being missed. Many of us are no longer content to accept as meaningful worship just going through the motions of the "5 Acts." We can do these and still miss the reason of worship: a meaningful experience with God and his church. I for one want to be moved emotionally as well as intellectually through the experience of our assembly worship. What we do on Sunday mornings should be a spiritually transforming experience, not simply counting the number of elements.

I think even beyond our worship, that in many areas where our restoration roots have focused (with good reason I might add), the unfortunate outcome has been that we failed to see other equally, if not sometimes more important, truths of being a Christian.

The good news is that more and more are clearly seeing the "big gorilla" right in the middle of everything. For those who are still victims of 'tunnel vision' this can look like an abandonment of the truth. It's not; we are just stepping back and trying to look at the whole picture of God's truth and applying it to our lives.

I want to encourage you to step back from time to time and look with fresh eyes, from a different point of view and see if what you see is really all that there is to see.