Sometimes I wonder what you think about when you worship.
I’m serious. Every so often on Sundays or at any other church gathering, I’ll take a glance around the room to look at all the people singing together, and although its always touching to see people sing about God, I wonder how many of you are actually thinking about what you’re saying.
To be honest, I am not always present when I sing an, “amazing grace” or a “mercy fall.” Recently I noticed myself getting bored with worship. My church generally sings the same songs every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I kept thinking, “Don’t they have new music to try? I feel like I’ve sung the life out of these songs.” And so week after week my praise turns into halfhearted, sweet nothings in the ears of God, most often during a season devoid of highs and lows. Usually after a week (or five), I have someone in my life who ever so eloquently reminds me that the words I speak (sing) have power and I’m rebooted until the next song becomes yesterday’s favorites. Please don’t tell me I’m the only one to go through this?
Now I’m not knocking new ideas and progression because those are all things from Jesus. But sometimes I wonder if my heart has become too fast paced to sit and really sing to God. If God said from now on I could only sing one song for the rest of my life, would I be content to do just that? Could I sing as passionately the 349th time as the first? I’ve been convicted about my reflection time and the amount of time I spend listening and reflecting. In some ways, the short attention span with worship songs is attributed to my lack of spirit stillness. Psalm 131:2 says, “But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother;like a weaned child I am content.” I read this verse and I realized I have no idea what it means to quiet my soul! I have absolutely no clue. (I literally wrote, “what does this mean?” in my journal) We hear “Be still and know that I am God,” but fail to truly understand what that means. The importance of being still seeps into our worship, into our quiet time, and into our lives. In turn we miss out. We rush through worship hoping for another line or phrase that will catch the attention of our soul and become our new song of choice not aware that God is currently listening and has so much for us if we would just quiet our minds and reflect on the words we sing. If anything he wants us to just sit and enjoy his presence among believers. I don’t know everything, but I do know that worshiping God is top the priorities list. So I’m not going to ask you to think next time you sing because that will only last as long as your attention will allow you. But take time outside of worship to reflect. I’m a six year old child with ADD when it comes to reflection, but with time and a lot of mental “hey you! pay attention!” slaps, I can somehow go week after week, sing the same songs and still praise God with the same passion and affection.
Post Twenty-five Life 