The Forgotten Acts Of Worship

Hey World,

This past weekend I had the privilege of housing my uncle at my dorm room for the night. We had a great time staying up til 1 drinking coffee and talking about all that's right and wrong in the world. One subject we touched on especially hit me, and I wanted to share it with you. It is....you guessed it. The forgotten acts of worship. 

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Now most of you that read this are church-going Christians. I don't actually know that...it's just an assumption since this blog is mostly about my faith. So, the act of worship is not a foreign word to you (the word "foreign by the way does not follow the i before e rule because it does not have the ay sound like in neighbor...that ones for free).

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If you go to church, worship is a weekly event. Now, thinking church-mindedly, what do you think of when I say the word "worship?" If you are being completely honest, I would assume you think of song time. Right? And that answer would be correct. The pastor says, "the worship team" may now come up.

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In our churches we have 1. worship time (a time to worship God), 2. sermon time (a time to hear from God), 3. offering (a time to give back to God). There's more to it than that, but those three usually always exist in any church. 

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So is church the only place we can worship God? Absolutely not. And that's not a new revelation to you. Of course we can worship God anywhere. We can walk out into the woods (if you are from the sticks like me) and worship through prayer or song. You can sing along to the radio or ipod in the car in worship. None of these are new ideas to you. But let me share some thoughts that you may not have dwelt on before. 

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If you want to turn in your Bible's to Colossians 3:17, and 1 Corinthians 10:31. These are extremely familiar passages, but I would argue often read over without soaking in the possibilities they bring about. 

1 Corinthians 10:31 (as you are following along in your Bible) says, "Therefore, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Read that again. Do you notice what word shows up, not once, but TWICE here? The word "whatever." According to the 1828 Noah Webster dictionary (that one is for you Dad) the definition of "whatever" is "being this or that; being of one nature or another; being one thing or another; anything that may be." I'd say Mr. Noah pretty much covered it. Whatever is ANYTHING. Any way you look at it.

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So, Paul tells us that "whatever" we do should be to God's glory. Now, since Noah wasn't around to tell the Corinthians what the word "whatever" meant, Paul gives some examples. He says whatever we "eat" or whatever we "drink", to do so to the glory of God. So in other words, he's just agreeing with the Webster man by saying it includes everything we do. But what about this "glory" word? What does it mean to give "glory" to God? Let's ask Mr. Webster what he thinks.

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Well, Webby has a lot of definitions for this word, so I'll just give you one noun definition, and one verb definition. The noun definition is "praise ascribed in adoration." And one verb is "to exult with joy; to rejoice." Hmmm....so I'm catching a whiff of something here that might have implications of gigantic proportions. "Glory," if I'm reading Noah right, is the same thing as worship. Worship is bringing glory to God. Bringing glory to God is worship. Stay tuned folks, this is turning exciting way quicker than theorists predicted.

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So, what have we established? 

1. We are to bring glory to God is anything and everything (whatever) we do. 

2. Glory is the same as worship.

So, using deductive reasoning, we can gather from this that

3. We are to WORSHIP God in everything we do.

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I don't know about the rest of you, but I am on the edge of my seat right now. My hands are shaking and my forehead is perspiring. Do you see what I am getting at here. Everything, and Paul, Noah, and I mean EVERYTHING you do in your daily life is done as an act of worship toward God.

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So when you smack your head against the ceiling as you climb into your bed (done it twice), the next words out of your mouth are an act of worship to God. When you eat a bowl of cereal, THAT is an act of worship toward God. When you guys open the door for a girl that is an act of worship (its also brownie points if you are trying to win her heart). When you go to a movie, that is an act of worship. When you do school, that is an act of worship. When you watch the Twins game, when you go bowling, when you play Xbox, when you drink coca cola, when you go to the bathroom, when you take a shower, when you eat pretzels, when you go swimming, snowboarding, hiking, fishing, text, laugh, cry, vote, read, write, put on your sunglasses, drive, listen to music, sleep, get married, kiss your girlfriend, cut your finger nails, pick your nose, teach sunday school, listen to the sermon, to camp, stand on your head, play with your dog, chat on facebook, read your bible, pray, sing, ask questions, fall in love, wink, shop, try on clothes (the girl form of shopping), swat mosquitoes, mow the lawn, do the dishes....EVERYTHING. Everything is an act of worship to your Savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. 

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Is this meant to be convicting? No. It's meant to bring a smile to your face, brighten you day, and make you look at life in a whole new way. Why? Because I lived so much of my life thinking that the only way to worship was to sing or pray or read my Bible. I sometimes wondered why we bothered so much about anything else. Why didn't we have church every single day? Wouldn't it make sense to spend our entire lives worshipping God? Yes. It would make sense, and we should spend every day of our lives worshipping God.

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But what I never realized...was that I DO. When I write this blog I am worshipping God as I use the skills he has given me to write. You are using your ability to read, or listen. And even though we may not realize it, it's an act of worship. God made us to live our lives, not just sit in church. But He also made us to worship and "glorify" Him. So, He granted that we might be able to do both.

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Let me give you one example and let your mind do the rest. I went to a movie once last semester called the Lovely Bones. I went by myself because no one else wanted to see this not very popular movie. The movie was kind of weird and stuff, but there was so much imagination involved in the movie. So much. Things that "can't happen" on earth in the real world. But imagination is something the youth of this world are forgetting. A trait we are losing. Now as some of you know, I write fiction novels. I am currently writing a fantasy trilogy about another world. You have no idea how many ideas I got for my books from this movie! So the ideas from the movie generate to my book and my book is based off God's gift to me (a desire and love for writing). So did i worship God in going to that movie. You betcha it did!

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I hope you realize that this post isn't about rethinking your daily activities. If you feel convicted than don't neglect that, but also make if a freeing moment. A moment to realize...WOW...my entire life is an act of worship. Maybe you hate your job. Well guess what, every day you muster up the strength to make it through another day...that....that right there is worship. If you can't stand a certain person...every time you smile at them is worship. If you are sick of school but you do it anyway...that is worship. Oh, I should stop writing because this is so long. I guess anything else i say would be repeating myself anyone. But I hope this is as encouraging to you as it is to me. 

Thank for reading, and God bless.