Worship

I spent the last week at Northern Pines, a family camp in Green Lake, WI. While there, I met this amazing girl named Molly and pretty quickly we became friends. One night after worship, Molly looked at me and asked, "Do you know what the most amazing line from 'How He Loves' is?" When I shook my head, she continued, "The very first line: 'He is jealous for me.'" I stood there for a moment, taking in that simple sentence that I had breezed over so many times in the song. He is jealous for me. The creator of the universe, who made thundering elephants, crashing waves and majestic mountains, is jealous of my attention. He wants it all for himself. Wow. We continued to discuss the song, the implications, and marveled at it together and individually the rest of the week.

Worship is an amazing thing. It isn't just singing to our Creator, but includes praying, dancing, serving, taking pictures, painting, breathing, talking, and being silent. Worship should be everything we do. It is God's way of letting us connect with Him. I particularly enjoy the singing and music part of worship, so that's what I'm going to focus on for now.

Listen, really listen, to a worship song. Not the tempo or melody, but the words. They will knock you off of your feet. Thinking about how God's love never fails, how He placed each star in the sky and knows them each by name, that He shines out of the darkness, brings us out of the ashes. That He sent Jesus to die for a wretch like me. That He could be jealous for that same wretch's attention. It's pretty mind blowing. When you really think about it, you can't stay the same. Worship is a transforming experience. If Molly had turned to me and said the same thing, we had marveled, and then I didn’t change anything about myself, I would be making a huge mistake. When she pointed that out to me, God asked me to spend more of my time with him, to turn my attention more often to my Creator who is jealous of me. He wants to spend time with me, and wants to spend time with you as well. He isn’t just jealous of my time and how I spend it, He is jealous of yours. He loves you and wants you to turn to him with your pain and fear, instead of earthly friends. Once you realize that, there is no return to the way things were.