I sit on the pew. The wafer of bread lies in my palm—so small, and yet so powerful.
The body of Christ, broken for you.
The organ plays and the choir sings, and the tang of grape juice hits my tongue.
The blood of Christ shed for you.
For a moment I realize that I’m connected to something much larger and more powerful than I had ever dreamed. We, the fellowship of saints, together with that great cloud of witnesses who has gone before, are joined in the common purpose of worshipping our king.
Worship is not about me. It’s about him.
In worship, I recognize that he is God and I am not.
I recognize him as the one worthy of all praise.
I admit that I am not the audience for worship. Instead, I join my voice with the great choir from every nation, tribe, and tongue, crying “Worthy is the Lamb.”
He alone is worthy.
And as I forge my own link in the chain of saints throughout the ages I realize how petty our silly quarrels and worship wars are, as if God were ever small enough to be praised in only one language or worship style. We need the rootedness and history of the great hymns of our faith. We need the creative challenges of new songs, and every once in a while we need to join with our African brothers and sisters who know that music isn’t just something you hear—it’s something you do with your whole body. The drum, the flute, the bongo, the banjo, our voices, our hands-—all these we lift in worship. For he is worthy of our praise.
We were made to worship.
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday linkup hosted by Lisa-Jo Baker over at her blog. She posts a prompt and this crazy group of bloggers writes for five minutes on whatever comes to mind. No editing. No second guessing. Just “finger-painting with words.” Click on over her blog to check it out and play along.
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2 comments
So glad I stumbled upon your blog through Five Minute Fridays. 🙂 Your post reminded me of a podcast I listened to recently that was talking a little bit about worship and communion especially and how somehow in the midst of it all we forget who is the host and who is the guest. As I pondered it more (and even included part of that in my 5 minute Friday post) I realized how true it is. We come and God meets with us and even though it’s all about Him, somehow we walk away restored and renews and refreshed. It’s all about Him and it’s for Him and yet in some crazy way, it’s FOR us too? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I’m glad you “stumbled” in!” That’s one of the fun things about Five Minute Friday. I like that thought–worship is about him but it’s also for us in some way. Thanks for commenting!
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