worship

I just finished reading this book that made me think and also made a lot of sense. It's Simply Christian by N.T. Wright. In some ways I felt like I was back in my Bible college days, reading a textbook for a class that was challenging, but also good at the same time.

In one section of the book, Wright talks about worship. He has a chapter on worship, and there were some things he had to say that really made me think. He talked about two "golden rules at the heart of spirituality" (to use his words) that I thought were really good.

(1) "You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship." (pg. 148)
(2) ". . . because you were made in God's image, worship makes you more truly human. When you gaze in love and gratitude at the God in whose image you were made, you do indeed grow. You discover more of what it means to be fully alive. Conversely, when you give that same total worship to to anything or anyone else, you shrink as a human being." (pg. 148)

We become like what we worship, and worship is what makes us more truly human. That just seems to sum up worship and what it should be so well.

Wright also talks about the importance of worship and why we may not be drawn to it in the way we should be.

"Worship is at the very center of all Christian living. One of the main reasons that theology (trying to think straight about who God is) matters is that we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. It matters that we learn more about who God is so that we can him more appropriately. Perhaps one of the reasons why so much worship, in some churches at least, appears so unattractive to so many people is that we have forgotten, or covered up, the truth about the one we worshipping. But whenever we even glimpse the truth, we drawn back. Like groupies sneaking off work to see a rock start who's in town for just an hour or so, like fans waiting all night for a glimpse of a football team returning in triumph - those who come to recognize the God we see in Jesus, the Lion who is also the Lam, will long to come and worship him." (pg. 148-149)

I think Wright hit the nail on the head about why we're not always drawn to worship, and about the truth that will continue to draw us back in worship. May we learn to not cover up the truth about Who we are really worshipping!