Make a Joyful Noise!

I was out of town on family business yesterday, thus no blog posting. Driving alone is a great time for thinking. I’m not one that requires something in the background making noise all the time; I’m quite content to have the time for retrospective reflection as well as thinking through how best to use my time in the upcoming holiday season.

Solo travel in your car is also a great time for exercising the rusty vocal chords singing along with the radio or CD. It’s cleansing to just belt out the songs with gusto, no concern what others may think; assuming you have the windows up. I made a round trip; I had time for both thinking and singing.

I have a quote on my screen saver that says “Worship is forgetting about what’s wrong with you and remembering what’s right about God” For me, that’s exactly what happens when I sing either praise or worship music. My world and worries melt away and the magnificence that is God becomes consuming. It’s like a shaft opens up and I can glimpse into the heavenlies. Thoughts and feelings bodily struggles bring fade as I open my heart, mind and spirit to seeking the Lord. An energy fills me where there was little to begin with. A sense of contented peace replaces earthly concerns.

An important note to make here is that I said this happens when I sing. Listening to praise and worship music is good, too, but it does not usher in the same depth of emotion and passion that using your own voice to honor and worship the Lord brings. It’s in the singing, the doing; giving yourself over to the worship that takes you to the place outside of yourself. It is in the surrender of YOU to the Lord that brings an authentic worship. Anyone can go through the motions but without the surrender of all of you; it is like a hollow shell, pretty on the outside but nothing on the inside.

Sadly, there are people in churches and choirs everywhere that practice that type of worship week after week. Some may say they don’t have a voice to sing. This is the voice God gave them; it will come as no surprise to Him and will sound sweet when used in genuine worship. Others are concerned about how they may look to those around them. Personally, I don’t care what my pew neighbors think of my singing; it’s not for or about them. I know there are people more reserved than I and this is not to disparage them, that’s just the point…it is not about them and when they let reservation dictate how they worship their Lord, they are making it more about their personal comfort level than they are about the one living God of all creation. They are worshipping to please themselves rather than making it all about pleasing God. There is no surrender of self when you place your inhibitions as boundaries around your worship. Think of King David, mighty warrior king of all Israel. David danced in his undergarments with joyful abandon and surrender as he ushered the Ark home. His wife disapproved and chastised him. God called David a man after his own heart; an important point made.

I’m not saying you should dance up the aisle of your church in your underwear…well, unless God tells you to…but I am saying that we need to make worship about God and not ourselves. Some people will go crazy watching a football game but clam up when it’s comes to praising God; their priorities are out of whack. The person standing next to you in church will not be standing next to you when you stand before God accounting for your life. Take a chance on some bondage breaking and belt out some praise and worship songs to the Lord. You might find a new spiritual freedom you didn’t know existed.

“Worship is forgetting about what’s wrong with you and remembering what’s right about God”