A Call To Worship

I am not more or less qualified than anyone else to exhort my friends and family in the following prose. We are all members of one body, Paul tells us, and one part of the body is not more or less honorable than the next. Nevertheless, my heart is burdened, and releasing the things wandering around in my brain from their cage, gives me much relief. May your hearts and minds be stirred up as you proceed into the inner workings of my soul…

My morning begins probably like most of you. My alarm goes off, I press snooze a few too many times and finally rise from my slumber to awaken the day with a hot shower. People often ask me, “So, Cynthe, what’s new?” My reply seems to be the same every time: “Actually, pretty much nothing.”

Within a span of a year and a half, my life went from the chaos of a sleep-deprived college student, to a mundane, snail-paced life of a single, working adult. Not what I anticipated for my first few years out of college “in the real world”.

Notably, the first year or so was a haven of rest after four years of seemingly-unbearable stress. But over the last several months, that haven has become more like a cage, bottling up unused energy and resources of my mind and body, supposedly reserving them for whatever is to come around the next corner of my life – whenever that should appear on the horizon. It has been difficult, feeling under-productive and useless, seemingly-ignored and neglected. My heart seems to have slowed its beating down to match the pace of life I am in, namely the beat of a sleeping snail!

I have cried out before God time and again for release from this cage called Waiting. Why does God have me here, why is He not using me more, especially when I seem to have so much to offer? Am I not seeking out opportunities enough? Is there more I should be doing to fulfill my longings to make a difference in the world around me?

My heart seems to have dried up with the parched, desolate sand dunes around it. And when my heart stops up, so often does my ability to be faithful to the Lord. There is no point to reading God’s Word, if my heart is not moved by it, right?

What does one do when their responsibilities have become limited to getting up in the morning to go work at a desk, interact with co-workers some, but on a minimally-impacting way, and come home to check a few emails, read a few pages of a book and go to bed? How does one keep their hearts beating fervrently for God when all around it seems to be clogging it up with dry, mundane, un-challenging responsibilities? If what matters most in life is the condition of our hearts, how does one maintain a focus on their heart, when their mind is occupied with other things most of the day?

God is beginning to answer that question for me. It is an answer that can be summed up in one word:

Worship.

My heart has forgotten to be in awe and wonder of God. It has forgotten how majestic, and beautiful, and all-powerful, and holy, and glorious our God is. A.W. Tozer states it this way:

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted it for one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men…the low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.”

He propounds elsewhere in his book Knowledge of the Holy that to entertain a wrong view of God is to be in the habit of idolatry. For if one’s view of God is contrary to who God actually is, than one is worshiping a God that their human mind created.

When I wake up in the morning, my goal must not be just to make sure I accomplish my work successfully that day, but to seek to maintain and sustain a heart that is constant worship and praise of God. For the praise of God is the chief end of man, according to Ephesians 1:12.

How does one do this, when their mind is occupied with thoughts of credit and debit cards, transactions in a bank account, and mailing addresses? For a mind fixed on earthly matters surely is not going to be in state of being in awe of God, is it? How can it, when it takes time to cultivate a genuine heart of worship through careful meditation on the things of God?

That is the question that remains for me to figure out. Perhaps you have some suggestions for me. But nevertheless, I am more convinced than ever that for however long God should deem it best to keep me here in this 8-5 job, in order for me to keep seeking after Him with a genuine heart, despite the fact that circumstances aren’t exactly permitting the accomplishment of that goal, I must seek to praise Him in my heart, in all that I do. Praise Him when I take a phone call. Praise Him when I fix a problem. Praise Him when I dish out grace to forgetful minds like candy to school children! Praise Him when nothing around me seems to point me in the direction of being constantly aware of His presence. Everything around me truly must give reason to praise Him, even when not immediately apparent. For He is the God of the universe, the all-knowing, all-wise, all-blessed, all-good, all-praise-worthy and glorious God who is the I AM. When my lips run out of words to speak His praise, may the very breath of my lungs send forth fragrant offerings of gratitude for the life I have been given, even when that life is not necessarily what I would have chosen initially for myself.

Fellow blue-collared workers of society, and worshippers of the living God, find a reason to praise God. And when you do, sing it out with all your heart, even when you cannot speak or sing it aloud. And watch your heart take flight and soar on the glorious wings of the dawn as it finds its rightful place once again: in praise and adoration of the One worthy of all-praise and honor and glory. To Him be the glory!