does our view of God limit our worship?

{Disclaimer: This post is not directed any one person. Nor is it meant as comments against worship in our churches. It is merely my wondering on the subject as I try to live life as a follower of Christ. I do not intend to offend anyone, only to challenge them to think.}

I was having a conversation with my Mom last night about worship songs that we so often sing. It's a conversation that I've had before with other people. We were talking about how sometimes it feels like all we sing about in worship is love - to the point where, to my Mom and I and to some others I have spoken with, it feels like the song is more something we would say to a husband or significant other - rather than to God. Sometimes I do wonder if we so easily get focused on God's love for us and our love for Him that we leave the rest aside.

I have nothing against songs that talk about God's love for us or our love for Him. That is incredibly important and we should not leave it behind. But, when I look back at the hymns of our faith, I see a broader mix of what the songs talk about. Yes, there are great hymns like My Jesus I Love Thee. But there's also hymns like A Mighty Fortress is Our God that talks about the strength of the God we serve and the battle we are engaged in as follower of Christ. Both are great. Both are right. And both are needed in our worship. Without one of the other something is incomplete. Yet I often feel as though most of the worship I am part of today tends toward songs like My Jesus I Love Thee, with nothing of the other.

This trend has bothered me for a long time. The more I have thought about it, the more I wonder if some of this tendency comes from our attempts - often unknowingly - to make God someone safe and predictable. Yes, God is loving - there is no doubt about that. But, He is also God and is beyond our human comprehension and we cannot make Him safe because we want to understand Him.

I think that when we focus on only one characteristic of God, we actually limit our understanding of Him to a greater extent than we could otherwise have. Just as focusing on only one or two characteristics of a person would mean that we would have a very small understanding of who they are, the same thing happens with God. Even if we do not prefer or cannot completely understand all of God's characteristics, we cannot refuse to acknowledge that which we do not prefer or understand.

As I said in my disclaimer above, I do not mean this to be directed at any person who leads worship. But, I do wonder if our view of God and what parts of God we choose to focus on have limited our worship.

As always, I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this. You can leave them as a comment on this post.

encouraging song

For the last few weeks I have had lyrics to a song I heard at church stuck in my head. They spoke so clearly about how I was feeling that night and how I often feel when I stop to think of what God has done for us.

The song is "Jesus, Lord of Heaven" by Phil Wickham.



"Jesus, Lord of Heaven, I do not deserve . . ."

That was the first line that struck me. We may not deserve it, but God offers it anyways.

"Jesus, Your love has no bounds"

That is probably my favourite line in the song. I find it easy to put bounds on God's love, either in my own life or when I look at others lives.

living in the dark

"You can't get well in the dark. You doom yourself by trying. But we try anyhow. The perpetual delusion of humanity is thinking we're better off hiding than confessing, avoiding rather than facing, clinging to our sickness instead of taking the remedy that's freely given and readily available." (Mark Buchanan, Spiritual Rhythms, pg. 231)

When I read that quote a few days ago, it jumped off the page at me. I found myself going back to reread it a few times to make sure I had it in my head and I have been thinking about it since.

How often have I tried to get well in the dark - even though I know I cannot? How often have I hid rather than confess? Avoided rather than faced? Held onto my sickness rather than taking the remedy?

Much of what we need to do to get well from a spiritual perspective, requires other people and being out in the open - the light. It is not the easy way, or even really our natural tendency, but it is the only way. We need to confess our sin, our brokenness, our need. We need to face our sin, our brokenness, our need. We need to accept the freely given and always available remedy for our sin, our brokenness, our need.

When I find an area of my life where I am struggling with sin or become aware of how broken I am on my own, my natural tendency is to hide. I look for dark places to hide, where no one can see that part of me - sometimes where no one will even notice I am there at all. The last thing I want to do is face it and confess it to God, even though I know that He holds the remedy for it and offers it to me for nothing other than my admitting I need it.

We live in a world that has bought into the lie - the "perpetual delusion" that we need to hide, avoid, and cling - that we should be independent and able to get through life without anyone. And this thinking has infiltrated the body of Christ. But, the truth is that we need one another and we need to be able to confess things in our lives to one another, so that we can help each other to face them and find our way to the remedy that God has made available.