Conviction: Day 24

I was reminded of a couple things when I was instictively comparing Ravi Zacharias and Beth Moore today. One was a poem called Like...ya know, a poem about speaking with/without conviction. It's a pretty funny poem, because it's so true, but it ends with the speaker sincerely imploring a message:

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, I challenge you:
To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

Both speakers do speak with conviction, but Beth does it with a little more passion, but less confidence. Many times she's not sure if she's getting her message across and a couple times she mentions that she's not a very good teacher. This is an endearing aspect of her teaching and it adds a little compassionate twist to what could be a rather stoic lesson.

Ravi seems to speak with a little more conviction, but more bluntness. While listening to Ravi, a couple small parts of his sermon made me think of Requiem of a Dream. You can watch it through this link on Hulu.com in its' entirety, but be forewarned it was a very depressing movie. It revolves around a man in his twenties, the man's girlfriend, his best friend, and his mom. The movie starts out fine and things seem to be getting better for all involved. Unfortunately for the characters, the movie hits a spike and then proceeds down a steep, steep slope to entirely different, and exceedingly low depths for all of them which is where the movie mercilessly ends.

The reason I thought of the movie was because of a couple of examples Ravi used to get his point across. One true story concerned a loving, but very poor new mom, a newborn baby, and a dog that had not eaten in 10 days. He went on to discuss the why's and how's of the world that caused this to happen to this woman. Another story concerned a very caring and Christian father who accidentally falls 50 feet to his death while his family watched. He then went on to read a very loving letter from the man's 12 year old son. These stories shake you a bit more than Pastor Don's or Beth Moore's stories do, but they do the reverse of Requiem for a Dream, in that they show the good to come out of the very bad, rather than show what kind of bad things happen to good people.

Another part of his sermon reminded me of my kids, because many times children are looking for praise. Ravi had no idea what t-ball was when he went to first watch his son's games, but noticed that everytime his son hit the ball and went to first base, he looked for Ravi to make sure his dad had seen it. He goes on to speak of his son's near worship of him at that age and how we need to worship our Father. After telling his congregation that "worship is coextensive with life", he recited a quote from another preacher that emphasized what he said:

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his Holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love and submission of will to His purpose. All of this gathered up in adoration is the greatest expression of which we are capable.

The first sentence is the most profound definition of worship I have ever heard. The second sentence is one of the most beautiful sentences ever spoken and the third sentence has to be said with conviction, because without proper conviction, it could be taken as hyperbole. It is not hyperbole at all and I believe it to be genuine.

Thank you, God, for allowing us to be able to express our love for You in so many ways, and letting this great expression of love become a healing process for our heart, mind and soul.

Amen