Often, we Christians use the term worship without thinking. Worship services, praise and worship, worship songs. What are we truly doing when we are worshiping?

What is worship?

To quote one of the readings for my class, "To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God...To worship is to experience Reality, to touch Life." (1.)  In my own experience, to worship is to glimpse God's attributes, which is an exceedingly beautiful experience. It is beautiful, joyful, and peaceful in the presence of God. The breathtaking fact about God is that He is everything good. The purest delight, the deepest compassion, the most thunderous sense of justice, the heartiest laugh among friends, the broadest scope of an artist's imagination, the most powerful vista and the intricate workings of a quark, are only little pictures of who God really is. When we worship, we stand on the shore of the ocean of His goodness, and realize that this good God is perfectly able to take care of all of our needs. Not only that, but He longs to do so. The best moment of every fairy tale is right in front of us, and it's TRUE! When I truly worship, I think, why didn't I do this earlier, why haven't I done this every minute of every day?

Why don't we seek to worship God more?

Worship is uncomfortable. There it is. To seek God we have to put our own  priorities aside and let nothing come between us. Sin has no place before God. We have to put blinders on and turn our faces to the pure Light. To face a God that knows everything about us, and to realize how much sin is left in us, must be a humbling experience. God declares that He is jealous for us; He loves us and hates for anything to come between us (Exodus 20:5-6). We have to offer our whole hearts to God; He will accept nothing less. I picture prying open our bleeding rib cages and letting God literally rip our hearts out of our chests. Pain! But what beauty and healing will come from that discomfort. We will be healed and made new. He will do all of the work, we need only submit to His operation. It's so very simple, really.

 To borrow an image from C.S. Lewis, we are like children who do not want to leave off playing with our mud puddles when we are offered to go to the beach.

Let's go to the beach! Let's immerse ourselves in the truth of God! Let's worship!




1. As quoted in Celebration of the Disciplines Foster, Richard J. 1978, Harper Collins, New York, NY. p. 158