How do I define worship? Singing words? Praying to God? Writing poetry?
I love words. I love language. Language enables me to express myself and understand others in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise. I couldn't write this blog without language or know how to operate a computer if I didn't know how to read. I couldn't complain to my friends about how much homework I have to get done without words and I couldn't teach someone how to do very much without words.
But in many ways, language falls short of what I really want to express. Perhaps my own knowledge of language is not sufficient, and if I understood it better I would be able to express myself better. The whole purpose of language is to allow us to express ourselves in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise.
Why then, if I find language so insufficient to express myself, do all of the typical methods of worship use only words? Today, I want to think about worship differently. I don't want my 'worship time' to only be at church on Sunday when I am singing praise and worship music. I don't want to just sing music while I am driving back to campus after spring break. I want to live my life as worship. Words are great. I can use them to tell God that He's so fanflippingtastically amazing that I don't have words to describe it. I can use them to tell God that I'm mad and upset and feel like my world is falling down around me and I don't understand what is going on. I can use them to worship. But wouldn't it be even cooler if every action I did was done in worship for Him?
Every academic and work assignment, done for His Glory. Every dish washed, floor swept, or daily chore complete, to further His Kingdom. Every conversation had, spent in gratitude that He created this person. Every moment spent relaxing, spent remembering how great God is and the only true peace and rest is found in Him. Every time we repent and ask God for forgiveness, a reminder of Christ's sacrifice for us.
But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."
1 Samuel 15:22
Samuel is reprimanding Saul for not obeying God in this verse, after Saul had disobeyed and used the excuse that the commands he had not followed would enable him to make more sacrifices to God. Samuel reminds Saul, and myself, that even if I follow the typical traditions of today to worship God, worship is much more than that.
What I cannot say, I must live.
What I have I done today to worship God?
Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,
Jo
