Not taking ourselves too seriously...

I'm reading through one of my favourite books again. It's called "Soul Survivor" by Philip Yancey (The by-line is "How my faith survived the church".) Yancey goes through several people who have been influential in his life, and his faith, and dedicates one chapter each to them. It's fascinating. There is Martin Luther King, Jr, Ghandi, Tolstoy & Dostoevsky, John Donne, and others. This latest chapter I've read is about Annie Dillard, a modern-day pulitzer prize winning author. I haven't read any of Dillard's work first hand, but he quotes some of her work in the chapter.

I had to laugh out loud as I read the other night, as she captured so well what happens on Sundays at church. Some of the "fatigued Bible readings, dilution of the liturgy, the horrifying vacuity of the sermon..." She goes on to say "Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter"!

I love it!

(Have to admit, I've been to many church services that could be described like that, but currently loving our international, interdenominational church in Manila.)