Worship
I love worship. It’s such an incredible thing when you stop and think about it. The ability and the opportunity to approach the One who is the object of our affections and connect with Him is something truly wonderful. For me, and I pray for you, it provokes this sense of awe and wonder. That I would be allowed to approach Him. That He would give me the ability to approach Him. That He would make a way for me to approach Him. There’s something so incredible about that.
Which always gets me thinking, what is worship really? I mean, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us that whether we eat or drink, we should do it all to the glory of God. Also, in Romans 14:6 Paul tells us that if we eat, we eat to the Lord. Both of those things sound like worship. But it doesn’t look like worship. Which just makes me wonder even more, what is worship? At the start of Romans 12, Paul tells us that offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is our spiritual worship. In Matthew 15 Jesus says that people worship Him with their words, but their hearts are far from Him, so their worship is in vain.
In Hebrews 13 we are told to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise, and to not neglect to do good, and share what we have. Taken together, all of this tells me that worship isn’t a single moment. It’s not something we do for around an hour and a half on Sunday mornings. Worship is a constant position we find our hearts, our very selves in. It’s not a moment, it’s moreso a state of being. One of my favorite understandings of what worship is comes from, of all places, an atheist. A writer/philosopher by the name of David Foster Wallace, in one of his last public appearances before his death said this:
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, you will end up feeling like a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”
Because what is worship really, other than a position we find ourselves in? What is worship other than building our lives around something, and finding our worth and value in that specific thing? In the Book of Concord, it’s worded like this: “ A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.
If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.”
So, if worship isn’t an action, but rather the actual leanings of my heart, then there is never a moment I am not worshipping. So, if I am never not worshipping, then all my life is worship, from my work, to my leisure, and everything in between. If this is the case, then do I act like it? Do we? What does rest, a break, as worship look like? What does work as worship look like? The answers to those questions have far reaching implications for our whole lives. I wonder what answer you’ll reach?
By Aaron Williams
Which always gets me thinking, what is worship really? I mean, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us that whether we eat or drink, we should do it all to the glory of God. Also, in Romans 14:6 Paul tells us that if we eat, we eat to the Lord. Both of those things sound like worship. But it doesn’t look like worship. Which just makes me wonder even more, what is worship? At the start of Romans 12, Paul tells us that offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is our spiritual worship. In Matthew 15 Jesus says that people worship Him with their words, but their hearts are far from Him, so their worship is in vain.
In Hebrews 13 we are told to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise, and to not neglect to do good, and share what we have. Taken together, all of this tells me that worship isn’t a single moment. It’s not something we do for around an hour and a half on Sunday mornings. Worship is a constant position we find our hearts, our very selves in. It’s not a moment, it’s moreso a state of being. One of my favorite understandings of what worship is comes from, of all places, an atheist. A writer/philosopher by the name of David Foster Wallace, in one of his last public appearances before his death said this:
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, you will end up feeling like a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”
Because what is worship really, other than a position we find ourselves in? What is worship other than building our lives around something, and finding our worth and value in that specific thing? In the Book of Concord, it’s worded like this: “ A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.
If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.”
So, if worship isn’t an action, but rather the actual leanings of my heart, then there is never a moment I am not worshipping. So, if I am never not worshipping, then all my life is worship, from my work, to my leisure, and everything in between. If this is the case, then do I act like it? Do we? What does rest, a break, as worship look like? What does work as worship look like? The answers to those questions have far reaching implications for our whole lives. I wonder what answer you’ll reach?
By Aaron Williams
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1 Comment
You have a way of ministering to me Becky. In Colossians 3 it says that whatever we do we should do it heartily as to the Lord. For it is from Him we receive the reward of our inheritance. I think of that often while working. And, once again, I am reminded of the song that says, "Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary for you." So be it for both of us!