WorshipCentral

Everyday I have to make this choice: am I going to be a 'me' or a 'You' worshipper?

I love to worship Jesus, my wonderful Jesus, who saved my soul, who befriended me, who has utterly captivated me from the moment I met him. I love that he reunited me with my glorious Father, who opens his arms, adopted me and welcomes home in everyday. He loves me away from my insecurities, fights my battles for me, champions me, underpins me, and cheers me on. I love to experience this love, this power, poured into my life by the incredible Holy Spirit. One moment with God beats a lifetime without him.

It's very hard to explain why I love God without including myself in the equation. I need to watch out that I don't start to reduce worship to something that I do on my own terms: 'I really enjoyed the worship this morning' or 'I don't like that song'. Worship is not something that God arranges so I get to feel good. That's a by-product, because God is wonderful, but worship is not for me. I want to run like crazy from a 'me' centered worship life. I guess the remedy is to choose to be a ‘You’ worshipper: to choose to worship God for who he is, not for what he can do for us or how we’re feeling.

This last weekend at church a friend called Charlie organized for a massive freight container to park-up in the driveway at HTB. The idea was that everyone would bring clothes, shoes, and nice stuff for a project in Zambia. By the end of the day this container was packed full of stuff.

One story really moved me: this guy is on his way into church and he doesn't know it's happening, so he doesn't have anything to give. He literally starts taking the clothes off his back: his jacket, his jumper. His girlfriend starts saying 'you can't put that in, that's your favorite jumper'. But he's holding nothing back, giving of his best without really counting the cost. On one level it’s ridiculous, but that's real worship. I'll tell you something: the church sounded sweet that night.

'You' worshippers don't look down at how they’re feeling, or around at what's going on in the room. They’re not thermostat worshippers, who start firing up when the place reaches a certain spiritual temperature. They catch fire and change the spiritual climate of a place. They don't care if the music is naff or the song is old. They're looking straight up, with the eyes of their hearts fixed on God. It wouldn’t matter if it were the oldest organ hymn or the best band; nothing is going to sew up the torn veil for them.

They’re sometimes embarrassing to be around: secret Pavarotti's, silly dancers, people who are not afraid of looking stupid, they don't think for a moment before giving their best jumper away to a stranger. They sing ‘me’ very quietly, aware that they are precious to God, but bellow ‘YOU’ from the top of their lungs. I want to learn how to be one.

Oh and while were on the subject of 'me' worship, this made me laugh a lot…