Choices - or the wonders of Saltburn

Sue and I spent most of last weekend in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, a small coastal town in the north east of England. I had been invited by Doncaster Baptist Church to lead their church weekend. They are a lovely bunch of people, and we had lots of laughs together. It was a privilege to share the weekend with the folk from D.B.C. Our theme for the weekend was "True Worship", and our focus was on the fact that true worship isn't what we might do in a church building for an hour or two on a Sunday, but rather it is the offering of our whole lives to God. I love the Message translation of Romans 12.1, 'So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering.' Not a bad summary of what true worship is all about!

Saltburn is a rather unique place - I've never been anywhere like it! Last weekend was only the second time I'd ever visited Saltburn. It is such a quiet place; walk down the high street and you wonder where everybody is! It's certainly not your average "identikit" street which you find in so many places around the UK; there are some quaint, local shops. But if you see more than about a dozen or so people around it's getting busy!

Despite his, I quite like the place. Certainly having spent a whole weekend there, I'm more taken with it than at our first fleeting visit some years ago. One of the strangest sights of the weekend was finding a sheep tethered and grazing on the lawn of the local Anglican church - at least it saves having to get the mower out, and also provides free fertilizer.

On the Saturday afternoon we had some free time. Sue and I walked down to the pier; it was great to be able to walk out along the pier and watch the surfers. It was quite a steep climb back to the hotel, and many folk were taking the cliff lift (see image above). The cost for a one way trip was 70p. Sue didn't fancy walking, but she had no money with her. Eventually she managed to persuade me to hand over the required 70p so that she could use the lift, whilst I decided to walk. Then, to my surprise, she changed her mind (woman's prerogative!) and decided to walk with me. We did have several stops on the way, but we eventually made it back to the hotel, though I never did get my 70p back!

Just as we had a choice about using the lift or walking, so true or false worship is based on a choice. False worship occurs when we just go through the motions; true worship happens when we make the choice to devote our whole lives to God.