Tim Keel's Blog

WOW! That's Worship?

Found this today (ht: Jason Weaver). Sad thing is, I think this is meant to be serious. Can anyone figure out if this is legit?

It kind of warms your heart, doesn't it?

Tears

I never cry when I should. When the circumstances warrant emotion, I usually find it hard to enter into what is happening.

That is not to say I don't cry. I actually tear up somewhat regularly - but not predictably. I continually get caught off guard emotionally. I will be going along, happily minding my own business when something in a movie, or a song, or a conversation, or even in nature, will hook me and before I know what is happening tears are streaming down my face. It happened a couple of weeks ago, in our worship service. At exactly the same place in two of our three our worship gatherings, I was overcome by emotion. Didn't see it coming either time and I stood there and heaved for a good three minutes. I am always grateful for that experience, of being reminded that my heart beats with an intelligence and awareness that my conscious mind is not in control of...

A couple weeks ago I was in an informal meeting when someone was sharing personally and in the midst of the exchange, they were overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry. I could tell that this didn't happen often, nor was this person comfortable with the fact that it was happening in the context we were in. For me, however, it felt holy. I was reminded of a passage from Frederick Buechner that I first read when I was around 23 years old. It made a huge impression on me and I have carried it around ever since.

"You never know what may cause them. The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or a face you've never seen before. A pair of somebody's old shoes can do it...You can never be sure. But of this you can be sure. Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next."

The Liberating Influence of Beauty

I am currently in Sydney, Australia, speaking at a leadership conference at Morling College. I left Kansas City on Thursday, arrived early Saturday morning, and will return home on Sunday, May 10. I think I am mostly free of jet-lag...

I am listening to another of the speakers right now, and like usual, I have to do something else simultaneously in order to focus. So I've been doing some reading, and found this marvelous quote from Albert Einstein.

"Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the Spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which you belong."

Last week I was at the Q conference in Austin, Texas, and felt like that is precisely what I was able to do - to learn for my own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which I belong. I hope to get some time to reflect on this blog what I found to be particularly compelling.