"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to all. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the common ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, between ability and disability. It lies in the pit of one's fears and above the summit of our knowledge. This is the dimension of worship. It is an area which we call The Worship Zone."
Meet my young friend with Bi-Polar disorder. The worship service has started. He's the teenager pointing his finger at one of the volunteers and sternly warning "Stop looking at me"! He is visiting the respite care facility this weekend. He does not know it yet, but he has just entered The Worship Zone!
Our teenage friend stops scolding his kind helper and turns to me. "God doesn't like me," he said. "He put a short in my CD player. Now it doesn't work anymore. God hates me".
"My friend," I replied, "let me tell you something very important. God loves you very much! We love you very much!"
We continued with our gentle worship songs. At this point, the boy closed his eyes and clenched his teeth while sitting in his beanbag chair. He was in torment. His face turned deep red as he fought against the voices and thoughts in his head. Saying nothing, he remained like this for a few minutes. My brave friend had willingly allowed us to worship without interruption! By the time we reached the children's sermon, he was calm again. There is comfort to be found in The Worship Zone
This teenager is always welcome at our Worship For All services. "Isn't he too disruptive?" you ask. On the contrary, we learned how effective our ministry can be from the boy with the Bi-polar Disorder! We have seen the power of worship and God's Word at work with children of Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Fragile X, Down Syndrome, Asperger Syndrome, Bi-Polar Disorders and other Intellectual disabilities.
A few months ago one of our children's messages was from Psalm 55:22. "Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall." (New Living Translation) Our objects were puffer balls with big bold faces on them. One ball looked worried, one looked sick and one looked angry. Before I revealed each object from the Worship For All bible, I asked if the children knew what worried, sickness and anger looked like. I pulled each one out of the bible and asked if anyone wanted to hold one. We passed them around the room. The look and the texture of the puffer balls were irresistible. The children were very interested.
Then a large plastic clothes hamper was brought in. On it was written "Jesus' Trash Can". I read our Bible verse and encouraged each child to choose a puffer ball and throw it in the trash. "Let's give our worry to Jesus," I said. He'll throw it away for us."
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I walked around the room with the "Jesus' trash can". To my surprise, all of the children were able to participate. Some threw a puffer ball in the trash. Some dropped it in if we carefully placed the trash can near their hand. For some, we rolled the puffer ball down their arm or leg and let it roll into the "Jesus' trash can".
That brings us back to my teenage friend with the Bipolar Disorder. He was sitting in his bean bag chair as I came near. I held the trash can low for him to easily toss in one of the puffer balls. He got on "all fours" and started vigorously shaking his head as if to say "no" He looked as if he was going to crawl into the trash can. I quickly said "No, don't crawl in. You're supposed to throw it in the trash can." He responded by saying, "I'm shaking my anger out. There's a lot of anger in my head. I'm giving Jesus all of my anger!" (We let him take all of the time he wanted.)
My friend got it. He understood the day's message in ways that I had not imagined! We all were in The Worship Zone. The teenage boy with Bi-polar Disorder led the way.
This is the Worship For All blog. It has a heavenly ending.
Tomorrow: "Touch"
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