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.