Worship

We had an awesome service at church today. It was about worship. Shouldn't every service be about worship, you ask? My answer is, of course it should. There are a lot of things that should be a certain way. But, is it? Is it always about worship? Not singing, which we so often call the "worship" part of the service. I don't mean that. I mean, pure adoration of the One who died to set me free. Me. And you. Isn't it true that sometimes we make it about us? About what we did or did not "get" from the sermon. About whether or not we were "fed." Truly, it is not about me at all, but about Him.

The text this morning was from Psalm 92, which says,

"It is good to give thanks to the LORD,

to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy."

It is good to sing praises to the most High God. El Elyon. It is good to worship and adore Him. Not just when He provides answers to my prayers the way I want them answered. Not just when life is rolling along and all is well. It is good to praise and give thanks to Him when I can't see what He is doing. When the clouds have obscured the sun and I can't see the end of my situation. When relationships are shaky, finances are tight, and the spirit is weak. It is in these situations that our true adoration and our true heart shines through. Do I love Him anyway? Do I trust Him no matter what?

We have a great group of men who lead our church. We do not have one senior pastor, but a team of teaching elders. They are young men, with young children who are putting one foot in front of the other each day - doing their best to model Jesus to their families and our congregation. Are they perfect? Certainly not. What I love the most about each of them is that they are genuine. They have a genuine love for Jesus and for the lost that shines brighter than anything I have ever seen. They travel the world, bringing Him into the darkest corners of Uganda, the favellas of Brasil, the cold, frozen plains of the Ukraine, and the devastation that has wrapped its tentacles around the land of Haiti. They do not hesitate to say when life is hard and they need some extra prayer.

I'm not trying to make this a commercial for my church. There are other godly men leading churches all over my city and our country. I am so happy that there are. We need every single part of the Body of Christ and it makes no difference what church you attend, as long as it stands solidly on the Word of God. I do think that corporate worship is important. There is just something about worshipping in a crowd of fellow believers that gives you that boost you need for the week. God instituted a day of rest, way back in the beginning. Not because He needed it, but because He knew that we would. He knew that our days would meld together in a whirlwind of actions and responses and that sometimes we would forget if we were coming or going. He knew we needed to take the time, regularly, to just breathe. To just be still. To just know that He is God and that we need to attach ourselves to His life giving energy and power.

I needed that so badly today and as I stood in that auditorium (we meet in a school) with my husband and children beside me, I felt the life flowing back into me. The life that I feel drains out so quickly sometimes. The everyday stresses are bad enough, constant messes, little people who are always hungry or thirsty or bored. The laundry pile that never ends. The errands, the lists, the appointments. Those drain me in a physical way. Even more intense though, is the emotional drain that pulls at my very soul. I write about it so often that I know I sound like a broken record, but the hurt in this world weighs on my heart like a huge lump of lead. The things I see around me and the things I read about bounce around in my head like a crazy symphony. The song that never ends. Some days I feel like the weight of it all will simply crush me into the ground. Some days I frankly just wish it would hurry up and do it.

Today I was reminded that Jesus took the time to go away to be alone and to pray. Even when there were troubles, even when there were things to be done. Luke, chapter 5 says, "But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray."

There are always going to be people who need something. I have to draw my strength from Him or I will never be able to go on. Sometimes that means withdrawing to a solitary place (I hope the bathroom counts). I read somewhere that Susanna Wesley (wife of Charles Wesley and mother of 19 children) would throw her apron over her head and kneel in the corner of the kitchen when she couldn't take it anymore and needed to be alone with Jesus. All of her children knew that if mom had the apron over her head, then there was no disturbing her. I LOVE that picture!

The world is full of heartache and trouble, but thanks to Jesus, this is the only hell I will ever know. No matter how hard it gets here, eternity is but a breath away. Until He returns, my job is to stand in awe at my Creator, to worship Him, to glorify Him, and to allow Him to use me any way He chooses to distribute His love to everyone I come in contact with.