When "Inside" and "Outside" Meet

It's a time of year that many Americans come alive in ways related to how particular sporting events influence their "emotional center." Professional baseball fans whose teams are in the "race for the pennant" become reinvigorated as the long season begins to draw toward a conclusion. The jockeying for a prestigous bowl bid and a national championship finds countless college football fans already in a dither and just as many basketball fans swept up in eager anticipation before the season has even begun.

The momentary glow experienced by American soccer fans which was sparked when David Beckham came ashore has been renewed with the rise of the American team in the women's World Cup play in China. And the new professional football season has many of us--myself included--already anticipating Super Bowl glory for our favorite team--and, vicariously, ourselves as well. (I confess, as I'm typing this I'm sitting at the keyboard wearing a Steelers t-shirt--I have several!)

We Americans, in general, love our sports--whatever the sport may be--and possess a passionate emotional involvement in our favorite teams and/or stars. Pull into the parking lot and walk into any stadium or arena or sports venue in America and the spirit is truly tangible and infectious. Those "plugged in" to the unfolding event are caught up in it and carried along with it. (And those who find no such interest or connection mentally twiddle their thumbs and count the seconds until the thing is over.)

In America's churches many of the same phenomena can be observed--and experienced. In some places, the music and the singing and the movement (whether incidental or integral) often serve to get worshippers' "hearts started." For others, the anticipation of hearing a legendary pulpiteer hold forth gets the "juices" flowing. Still others quake at the prospect of "meeting God in the Eucharist." Sometimes--some places--that "tangible spirit" can be felt at the threshold--or even out in the parking lot--as one approaches the worship space.

Many of us depend on the event "outside" to generate feelings and emotional involvement on the "inside." Just as many seem able to kindle and nourish a glow or an "inner fire" which rises up from within and seems to flow outward to connect with the larger spirit present and grows brighter as the "spiritual momentum" builds.

In other words, some need to connect to an outside source in order to get ourselves spiritually and emotionally involved in worship--we need a set of "spiritual jumper cables" to connect us to an energy source and get us going. Others seem to maintain an inner energy that's there--like a fully-charged battery--which keeps them energized and invigorated between "events."

Do you need something "from outside" to "reach in" and get you going? Do you need the music or a speaker's passion or something else to motivate you? Is it easy or difficult for your inner spirit to connect with the outer spirit alive in a group or event or place? What does it take for your "inner" and your "outer" to get together, commune and grow?