interesting common ground tonight.
as people arrived they were given a hershey's kiss and told not to eat it... (so were we - just much after we arrived...) as the service is broken up into different parts we all figured these would be part of the service later - and we were right.
the whole service was about serving idols and what exactly could be considered an idol - which of course could be anything. about 3/4 of the way through the service, anita tells us to take out the kisses we had been given and during one of the songs we were praying and reflecting to (over the sound system... we actually got to sit and participate!) if we were ready to give up on one of our "idols" we could symbolize this by taking the kiss and putting it beside the christ candle up at the front. she reminded us that sin is often present in appealing circumstances as this chocolate was. and it was actually a difficult thing to do. we had already spent 30-45 min holding on to the chocolate and by this point everyone was ready to eat them... so giving them up was more then just minorly symblic. over the course of a 4 minute song - everyone brought their kisses up to the front... just a few at a time until you looked up at the front and saw everyones chocolate - chocolate that symbolized something in their life that was holding them back. as this was the first sunday of lent it got me to thinking about things to give up - now normally i don't really give anything up for lent - but i was thinking that if i gave up one of my 'idols' each year i'd probably be in pretty good shape. it was interesting to reflect on it for the next couple of songs and just see the candle surrounded by the candle as we sang about surrender.
i was already thinking this was a very cool excercise, but anita wasn't done yet - at the end of the service she brought our attention back to the chocolates at the front and said that when we give stuff up for God he fills our life with better things - she then brought out a basket of full size chocolate bars...
the whole experience has given me something to think about.