Off-beat

After Mr. Toad's wild ride through the mountains of central Costa Rica, we finally arrived at Alajuela, a "suburb" of San Jose. Here, we have joined with the mission team from mid-TN and are staying in the Methodist Seminary here. We are helping renovate a Methodist church and to conduct VBS at an elementary school in a very rough area of town, a.k.a. Little Hell. The children there are beautiful and patient with our lack of command of the Spanish language! It was hard to believe as I looked at them that they live in such a rough barrio, with murders, prostitution, and drugs on every corner.

Last night at the church, we worshiped with the people of the church and community. During the opening praise songs, as the band played enthusiastically, I began to clap my hands to the songs. Now, in the US, we clap on beats 2 and 4. Philip, Lana, and I have a standing joke in the family that Rob will invariably clap off-beat (beats 1 and 3) and someone has to get his attention and set him straight. WELL, guess who was off-beat last night? Rob took full advantage of the situation and told me that all those times that I had demonstratively tried to get him to clap on the "right" beat, he was actually rehearsing for worship in Costa Rica, where they clap on beats 1 and 3! It got me to thinking about differences, or should I say, diversity, in cultures and people and about my own efforts to "colonialize" everyone to my way of thinking, acting, and, yes, even clapping rhythm. The Body of Christ is beautiful, like various threads in a tapestry that make the whole so much greater than the parts. So-- all of us seem a little off-beat to someone else. I'll swallow my pride and keep clapping.