WEEK FOUR: SOUL SONGS

Worship has been and will always be the central part of the Christian experience. Worship is the most popular thing Christians do. Most of what we call Christian behavior has become part of our legal system or is deeply ingrained into our social expectations. In other words, most of what we consider a proper way to act is not voluntary at all, but rather enforced by law. However, the one piece of the Christian lifestyle that is (for the most part) entirely voluntary is worship. On any given Sunday, even though church attendance in the US is considered to be declining, there are more people involved in worship than there are at all the football games combined.

So why do we do it? Why so much willingness to engage in worship on a Sunday? Eugene Peterson, in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, states it is because “worship gives us a workable structure for life, nurtures our need to be in relationship with God, and centers our attention on the decisions of God.” (pg 45) Even though we come from various backgrounds, varying intellectual levels, even languages in worship, we are gathered into a single whole focused on one thing: God! It leads us to a place of putting God in his rightful place in our life. It acknowledges and praises God for what he has done and is doing, and it gives thanks to God for those things.

But worship isn’t something we do only when we feel like it. If that were the case, very little worship would actually happen. Feelings are important, but not very reliable when it comes to faith. Peterson again writes, “We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.” (pg 48) As followers of Jesus, we want to hear what God says and what he says to us. Worship is the place where our attention is centered on these words of God.

So, what do you do when life feels overwhelming? Where do you go when the deepest part of you feels defeated, beat up, and worn down? You need peace? Worship! You need encouragement? Worship! You need refreshed? Worship! It doesn’t just satisfy your hunger for God, but it deepens it. Lean into worship. You will not regret it.