Just about every Sunday, I will hear from someone that they didn't like a certain element of worship. And a few minutes later, someone else will come to me and tell me how meaningful that same element of worship was to them.
We have different ways of experiencing God's love.
Those who are FEELING PEOPLE experience God's love through beauty and devotion. They are attracted to a personal, intimate sense of divine reality. They find God in praise, thanksgiving, the arts and nature.
Those ACTIVISTS among us find God's love in what is good. They pursue moral concerns, seek the good of their neighbors, establish shalom in the world, and experience God through justice seeking and community building.
Those who are INTELLECTUAL value knowledge. They experience God most deeply through the pursuit of wisdom, and disciplined thinking.
Those who are ICONOCLASTIC will approach God kicking and screaming all the way. Theologian Paul Tillich described this spiritual pathway as "faith forged in the crucible of my doubt." They are skeptics and cynics.
All pathways will lead to God. Each one can be a way home. In every church, all four paths must be open. For most of us, one path is dominant.
And now you know why we don't all appreciate the same things in worship. There are four pathways to God's love. Once you find yours, I invite you to use it often!
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