Awesome Worship

Last night I was part of awesome worship. My church has meetings of small groups of people that meet in members' homes. We call these Kinship Groups. Here people get together for all sorts of Christian activities: worship (traditionally, to the accompaniment of a guitar), Bible Study, prayer, eating, stuff like that. It is a great way to get to know a small group of people in the church better.

Last night we had Kinship, and we had a great worship time. How was it great? For me, it was great because I was so focused on God and on how good He is and on His glory. I was so offended and hurt that the majority of people in the world don't care about Him or acknowledge Him. It felt so unjust, that the person who was the best, who loved the most and was so good should not be treated that way. I longed for the day when justice would be done and God would be honored the way He should be, when everyone would look at Him and say, "Yes, we see, God does deserve to be honored." One day, God will receive all of the honor that He is due. I wanted so intently for that day to come soon.

Why was this worship so great? There are a number of reasons. The kinship is led by a couple who are "old worshipers" - not that they are old, but that they have been worshiping God for decades and they know how to do it. This couple is also accomplished musically, and so the music sounds good and includes improvisation. Improvisation in worship has its downsides - it can get people who know how to improvise focusing on what they are doing musically rather on their worship (this is where I tend to have problems), and it can leave people who don't know how to improvise feeling left out. However, when it works and is focused on worship, improvisation can combine to lift the spirit. When I truly worship while improvising musically, it feels like my spirit opens up and I really begin to believe that all things are possible. In this way jamming in worship is similar to tongues - which we were also free to use last night.

However, beyond these reasons, I think the simple fact is that God has ordained this group of people to be blessed with great worship when we get together. There is just something unique about our times together that I think is beyond our individual contributions. I mean, I could get together with some other strong worshiper (hi, Jess! hi, Kathie!), and it would be good, but it wouldn't be the same. I used to think that this great worship was God's way of giving my wife and I sanctuary during a time last fall when other relationships seemed spoiled, but the other relationships have gotten better and the great worship has lingered.

I said "blessed with great worship" above, but that makes it sound like my focus is only on what I get out of it. It is not. Yes, great worship is a blessing, but it is a blessing in the same way that helping out a friend move is a blessing, or like knowing that that long, emotionally draining talk you had with a friend helped them out. You feel good at what you did, but there is still work involved. In the case of this worship, I really feel that we are accomplishing some work, beyond just blessing God (which is definitely a good work). It is very humbling to be involved in something that feels so great.

Worship God!