Worship Part II: Worship Changes Us

Continued from previous post... Worship is realizing the value of what you are carrying around.  

To carry the thought further...  additionally you can imagine my father would have made changes based on the realization that there was gold in the rocks.  One doesn't find something extraordinary in something ordinary without a reaction.  He would have reoriented his life and all our lives around this new reality.  He would have made plans to acquire more rocks and extract more gold.  To ignore treasure is unthinkable.   

So it is with worship.  It reorients our life.  If something is truly valuable it changes us and gets us on track.  It becomes the magnetic field of our compass.  Are you worshiping the one thing of infinite value?  If so, how is it changing you?  How is your life oriented? 

Worship Part I: Realizing Value

I remember collecting rocks in the mountains as a boy.  I had read somewhere that there might be gold in the rocks.  My father didn't discourage me.  He humored me (and certainly humored himself) by allowing me to bring a box of rocks back home so that I could boil them on my mothers stove to extract the molten gold!  I was convinced I was carrying hidden treasure around in those stones.  My father knew I wasn't carrying anything substantive.  Imagine for a moment if my father had been wrong.  Think about what his reaction would have been if gold were to ooze out of those boiled rocks!  His perspective would have changed.  He would've thought something to the effect of, "I had no idea what we were carrying around had so much value."

Those of us who have invited God to move into our lives are actually carrying around a hidden treasure.  It is worth far more than anything we can imagine.  Sometimes we forget.  Sometimes we lose sight of what we have.

Worship is what happens when we realize the value of what we carry.

Preserve Substance

Substance is enduring, form is ephemeral. Preserve substance, modify form. Know the difference.Dee Hock

So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

Nepal Idol?

Sometimes the world's cultures seem to be shrinking and more connected. Other times it feels the opposite... I guess this link regarding the 3-year-old living goddess in Nepal high-lights both points for me. While my Western-Judeo-Christian-mindset cannot wrap itself around a 3-year-old being a goddess what I do know is...

Our need to idolize and worship has no boundaries.

The Same but Different

We didn't got to church yesterday but we did go to a place of worship. In fact it was a lot like the place of worship we went to to the weekend before...

Both had massive crowds, 'celebrities' up on giant video screens, places to eat, souvenirs to buy, long lines, long walks, high-tech interactive displays, maps, worship folders, great music, volunteers serving, greeters, crowds of happy people, cheerleaders, programs for kids, parking attendants, lots (and lots) of money changing hands...

and both had very strong messages.

What strikes me is that the only real difference between the NFL Experience at Super Bowl 42 (see a few pix of my family there) and the church we visited the week before would be the content of the message.

And now, I would like to draw lots of conclusions here... but I'm not going to... what do you think? Leave a comment.