Fanning the Flames of Worship

The opening of this new year I realize I’m missing worship. Even as I expressed that thought in my journal, I wondered what exactly I meant by it. Whether we worship communally or privately, prefer the silence or the music, in soaring cathedral or a simple country church, we all worship. It’s part of what defines the human experience. But what’s at the heart of worship?

As I explored the idea of worship, I knew that I had lost my focus of worshiping God in my everyday life. Yes, I believe my work and rest and ordinary interactions of every day are the holy ground where God shows up and instills a sense of blessing or fullness or presence. But worship isn’t only about what I’m receiving from God. It’s more than evoking a spiritual feeling or a fleeting emotion.

Worship is something I offer to God as I realign my heart, mind, and spirit to focus on who God is, to release my self-reliance, and embrace the reality of God as the source of all life. I let go of thinking the world, or my workplace, or my family can’t get along without my being on call 24-7, always ready to receive a text or a call and to respond immediately to every inquiry.

Worship strips away my presumption that what I contribute and produce in this world is connected to my worth. In God alone my identity rests. So, while God is always reaching toward and pursuing each of us, worship acknowledges that we too reach toward and seek God. We turn our hearts to know God and honor the beauty, creativity, and characteristics of Divine One among us.

In her beautiful book, Beholding and Becoming: The Art of Everyday Worship, Ruth Chou Simons writes, “How we direct our eyes, minds, hearts, and hands in the everyday will determine whom we ultimately worship and what we ultimately become.”

So, I offer this prayer today as I ask God to fan the flames of worship within me and perhaps within you too.

Lord,
May my conversations express your endless love and tenderness.
May my work be your delight on earth and in heaven.
May my words bear witness to your glory.
May my reading and meditation open my heart to welcome you in.
May my decisions be the dwelling place of your Spirit.
May my life be your vessel of truth and grace poured out for the world.
May my worship always bless your Holy Name.
Amen.