Worship

Somethig has been bugging me for some time now, and that is the conditioned response that everyone gives towards worship. Now correct me if I'm wrong but when I view worship biblically those people were nearly exploding within themsevles when they would worship, it was truly just them and God in that moment, and they were delighting in praising Him. The would dance, they would sing, they would literally explode as they praised God. I have noticed that within our culture today we look to do anything but explode, I would almost venture to say there is more passion and purpose displayed by people when they are a concert then when they are entering into the Almighty's presence. As I sat back and watched this at the Jack Johnson concert this year this really struck me, I have been observing this within myself and within other that I encounter since that concert. I feel that we approach these performers that are singing about things that are so trivial when compared to the splendor of God with more of a passion then we approach God.
This is a tremendous problem. I feel that we have lost the heart of worship, we have allowed worship become something that we have to do in every single service, and we correlate it purely just to music, and sanction it to one place and one time of the week instead of living a life that is constantly worship, and walking in God's presence seeking His elation with the offering we have provided.
Worship is more then just chapel or Sunday mornings but it is a life long venture. We naturally seek to be fulfilled through someone taking joy in who we are, we feel valued, like when you were a little kid and you attempted to make breakfast in bed for your parents, it turned out to be terrible but they were so elated with your effort, with the passion you put forth to show that you loved them that much to make a complete mess of the kitchen. You feel most valued in that time because although you came up short and made a mess your parents were still so thankful for your heart. Now that is a stretch because most parents now would freak with the messed up kitchen, but I think you get where I am going with this. We are a people that are constantly looking for value, we seek it in the relationships we strive for and in the trivial materials we purchase on a constant basis. We try to push the piano up the hill when in fact we don't have to toil with that task but just look to the one who has provided for us with adoration. When we worship (especially with our lives) we find value, we see that despite we can never truly be good enough, that we can never reach the level of perfection that God is he still comes to meet with us. Does that not give us value? When I think about it worship might be best thing in the entirety of our lives that we can do to find out value, it might be the only thing.
Now I feel that we have been conditioned to worship in just one particular way most of our lives. To stand completely still, maybe lift up our hands, eyes must be closed, when did this become the standard? I believe it started with those attempting to be respectful of the Spirit moving, when did you ever see someone at a concert being completely still just waiting to get through it, no they paid their darn good money to be there, they are going to enjoy this concert for all it is worth, and why did they pay money to be there? To see someone they admire, someone that they feel gets who they are perform and sing songs that speak to them, they let the music take them over, they will throw their hands in the air, they will jump, shout, sing, scream, they will basically explode at that moment. Why is not the worship we have an opportunity to take part in seen in exactly the same way? Today in chapel a local worship minister came in to do worship for the entire student body, what happened in that chapel is what I believe every person needed, they needed to see that to worship must let the music, let God's Spirit take you over, to allow yourself to truly experience God during that time and not wondering what the person next to you is doing or thinking, within that moment today it was just us and God. Why does it take such a special worship leader to envoke that in people? Is it because we need someone to help us to get half way with God?
Why don't we explode into worship?
Whenever I truly think of this explosion I think of my older brother P.D., not let me give you an accurate description of P.D. he is a 26 year old with the heart of a child, he pursues the world, he pursues his Father in heaven the same way that a child would by letting himsefl explode. I can remember it being something that I was emberassed by growing up seeing my odler brother explode into dance during worship (it looked something like River Dance meets Micheal Jackson) but the more and more I continue to look at it, I believe P.D. was the only one during those musical worship sessions that truly understood what it meant to meet with God.
I can remember a scene from a favorite movie of mine called Keeping the Faith, within this film Ben Stiller is a Rabbi and Edward Norton is a Priest, they are best friends who grew up in New York together. There is one moment in the film where Ben Stiller is attempting to get his Temple to worship, as they have lost the heart, the feeling of the joyous song they are singing. In order to get them to feel the Spirit he brings in a Gospel choir to lead the congregation in worship. What happens is amazing, the entire congregation explodes into dance, they have caught the heart of worship, they understood exactly what it means to come before the Father provide Him with an offering of praise.
So why do we not Explode into worship?
If we are to truly enter the heart of God we must look to explode within ourselve to make our worship time so personal that it is just us and God there. We must understand that in doing so we find our most ultimate value, we have to let the Spirit take us over and lastly we must seperate ourselves from anyone else there and make it personally between us and God, approaching him as a child without fear or inabitions of what those around us will think if we Worship our God.

Cj-out