Thoughts on Worship and Adoration

I have been pondering what it means to worship recently and something occurred to me. I am trying to work through it myself, so I may misstep and find myself in need of correction, but I will try to put my thoughts down anyway.

It is very interesting that we are called to worship and adore God. Often in this world, these two things are somewhat distinct. It seems like it is hard to do both at the same time. For example, I love my wife. I adore her. She is wonderful and I try to honor her and lift her up (rather poorly, I am afraid), but I am not tempted to worship her. I know her too well. This means that I know her beauty, but I also know her sin. In all her beauty, she is simply a sinner saved by grace.

At the same time, I love going to concerts. I love to hear live music being performed well. There is something passionate and moving when a group of people get together and just play. My favorite group to see live is Dave Matthews Band. They are great musicians who put on a tremendous show. I am always amazed when I go see them. But there is a sadness that I feel deep in my heart when I am at one of their concerts. So many people that go to the shows appear to be in such awe of the band that it seems to border on worship, if not being outright worship. They hang on every word spoken or sung and they scream and raise their hands in full and eager support. I have even seen signs that say, "Carter is God." Carter is a very good drummer (certainly one of the best), but he is nothing compared to God . Even as a Christian, it can be very easy to get caught up in this atmosphere of worshipping the people on the stage performing something that we enjoy so much. We are hard-wired to deeply desire to worship something greater than ourselves. For some people, sadly, Dave Matthews Band fits the bill. But it seems to me that if we really got to know the band members personally and spent a good bit of time with them, we would see them more for who they really are and would soon lose the sense of awe and wonder that we so easily have for them. We would see far more of their human side with all their faults and be far less tempted to worship them.

Only God becomes more wondrous and awe-inspiring the more personally that we get to know Him. At the same time, our adoration of Him grows even more as we worship Him and delight in Him. Only with God do awe-inspiring worship and delightful adoration continue to grow because the more we know Him, the more we want of Him and the more our enjoyment of Him grows. What a wonderful God we have! I am so thankful that He has shown Himself in all His beauty and glory that I may spend the rest of my life (and hereafter) getting to know and worship Him rather than trying to satisfy my desire to worship on Dave Matthews Band or anything else that isn't God.

Southern Influence?

Clearly, my time living in the great state of Mississippi has affected me quite deeply. I have found myself speaking with a much stronger southern accent at times and I am using words that I have never used before such as "y'all's" instead of "your". But I truly felt the weight of the influence on me when the other day I started laughing to myself as I thought of this great little expression that certainly feels very southern, if not all out redneck. Please tell me if you have encountered it before because I may have made it up.

To tell somebody that you are very busy, you can say, "I feel like I'm in a butt-slappin' contest. The faster I go, the more behind I get!"

Thoughts, Emotions and the Fight of Faith

I recently had a conversation with my good friend, Larry Hornsby, in which I was telling him about the very difficult times that Julie and I are going through in regard to our unborn little girl, Magdalena. I told him that it is very hard for us knowing that we have several more months of dealing with the fact that our little baby will most likely either be stillborn or will die shortly after being born. This has made us very emotional with a lot of ups and downs. There are times when we are overcome with grief and we start crying at unlikely times as something reminds us of what we are going through. I quoted to Larry a line in a song by U2 which says that feelings are stronger than thoughts. Larry quickly told me that that is not true. Thoughts are ultimately stronger.

I think that Larry is right, but there is also some truth to what Bono says. Emotions hit us hard and seem to be less in our control than thoughts. Many emotions carry along with them a real physical response that only adds to their strength. However, for the most part, our emotions can be greatly influenced by how and what we think. I think this is why the Bible commands emotions all over the place and also why we have such a hard time accepting that God commands us to have certain emotions. I believe that right thinking about this world and particularly about God can greatly change the way that we feel about things.

Some emotions are almost always sinful. This is very difficult to truly understand if we feel that we have little or no control over our emotions. For example, jealousy is a very powerful emotion that starts in early childhood and, for many of us, continues right through adulthood. Often, it goes unchecked and can lead to a great many other sinful thoughts and behaviors. It is something that I certainly struggle with in all kinds of situations. But recently I have learned to battle jealousy through right thinking about God and his glorious promises to always take care of me. If I am willing to preach to myself that I am in his perfect hands and meditate on that fact, I can easily overcome that feeling of jealousy and turn it into feelings of joy and peace in God as my wondeful Father.

Another example is impatience. This one is extremely powerful, especially in our American culture. R.C. Sproul says that impatience is a direct attack against the sovereignty of God. I think that he is exactly right and that in that statement is the key to overcoming the sin of impatience. If I spend my time while I am stuck in traffic meditating on the fact that God is totally in control and that he put every one of those cars in my way at the very moment that I was in a hurry to get somewhere, the ugly feelings of impatience go back to wherever they came from and I find myself at peace in what could have been a very negative experience. I think this is very God-honoring.

The more I meditate on the fact that all things work together for good for those of us in Christ, the easier it is to deal with the grief of knowing that my first daughter will almost certainly pass away shortly after or before even being born. Also, knowing that His grace is sufficient and that His mercies are new every morning is wonderfully relaxing because I can rest in the fact that throughout the coming heartache, he will be there for me to strengthen and comfort me. This is what John Piper calls faith in future grace and I have found this understanding of God’s relationship to us profoundly life changing. This is also a daily battle that must be waged in prayer and meditation on God’s Word. This is what Paul calls the fight of faith. The battle is tremendously difficult at times, but the more we think and meditate on the great and glorious truths about God, the more we are able to experience the great peace and joy that are promised to us, even in the midst of great sadness.

Please pray that our thoughts and emotions will be greatly God-honoring and soul-satisfying in this very difficult time for us.

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