September 9, 2008:Christianity and Politics: The Sarah Palin Selection	Just a few more weary days and then... I'll fly away... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
	August 28, 2008:New Orleans and the Hand of God
	August 10, 2008:NCHS Class of 1978 Revisited
	March 20, 2008:Traditions

Most Christian Worship services aren't like a new LCD Monitor William H. Haller

Last Friday, I got a new LCD monitor for the computer I use at work. I had been using a CRT that had higher resolution, but took up a lot of space. After much resizing of fonts to get letters clear on the new LCD and resizing of system monitoring tools to make them fit the lower resolution, I was set.

I used the monitor for a few hours and then went to the restroom. I noticed a strange effect. The whole world seemed dimmer than usual. LCD monitors tend to be set at a very high brightness level, and over the hours my eye and brain had adjusted to that intensity. Moving my eyes back to the real world made everything seem dim by comparison.

When I got back to the office, I adjusted the brightness and contrast, eventually settling for 0% brightness and a bit higher contrast and when I left the next time, it wasn't as bad. I'll see how things go on Monday.

As I reflected on that, I thought of the parallels to the worship services in many parts of the USA compared with worship in heaven. If the Holy Spirit came down and touched our services with the same force that exists in heavenly worship, what would be our reaction?

Would we be so happy with the results that the world around us would seem dull and dim in comparison? Would we be better able to go about our next week without being bothered or tempted by the things of the world because they pale in comparison? Or would we take the opposite approach? Would we "drop the brightness" of the service down so the difference between the church and the world wasn't so stark and jarring? After all, we want people to be comfortable in our services and we ourselves don't want to be radically jarred from our accepted patterns of thought.

Is this the fundamental problem our churches and denominations face today? Have we adjusted the brightness too low? Christ did suggest that we be the light of the world and that we shouldn't hide our lights under a basket. Is heaven going to be a real shock for a whole lot of people? Just my 8 cents (adjusted for inflation)