what are you?

Unlike the famous quip suggests, you are not what you eat. The truth of you is not able to be consolidated to a fancy one-liner. Sorry. If you want to understand what and who you are, then understand what you worship. Tonight I spent over an hour studying on the subject of worship. I wanted to hear the opinion of the Bible. You see, I desperately want to believe what the Bible says, and, even more, do all that it tells. The problem is that I have read it too much (don't worry, I know the ridiculousness of that statement). Seriously! I have read the scriptures enough for the lines to enter the doors of my ears like a casual acquaintance that I know what to expect from. Take for instance the passage in Matthew 22:37: "Love the Lord, you God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Pardon my stuttering and I pray continue with my efforts at expressing what I feel entering that verse. I read that verse and only part way through I have lost focus. Do you know what I mean? I have entered something holy and divine and then an overriding default allows me to both finish reading and carry on another thought, perhaps about another activity or obligation that I have. I am convicted by this. Especially when reading a verse such as this one. At some point, somewhere, I protected myself from passion. Maybe it is what I have heard of happening to those who get "old." Perhaps I am protecting myself from being raised-up only to be hurt or disappointed. You know, all the usual excuses. But that is not what the verse says, and if I follow that reasoning I miss the point. The Bible doesn't allow for excuses. No one will stand before the throne of God and get away with a "But...." The verse gives no exits, other suggestions, or possible alternative routes to being a Christian. You see there is only one way to be a Christian--for there to be a radical transforming of your heart and changing of your mind to claim Jesus as Lord. There is only one way to worship--in Spirit and truth. And only one way to be identified by yourself, by others, and by God as being a Christian--love. I am not going to "go Greek" on everyone in talking about love. Think of the greatest, most triumphant idea of love. Here is what the Bible thinks of: patience, kindness, no envy, no boasting, no pride, no rudeness, no selfishness, not easily angered, dislike for evil, joy in truth, protecting, hoping, always persevering. It is the recipe for eternal twitterpation. Here is my desire and, I believe, the culmination of worship: fireworks, dancing, whistles and trumpets, banners planes and in-hand, people singing and the whole world being rattled with the forever news, "God is and was and is to come, holy and just, and...incredible...infinite...." Think about it, what is God worthy of? Crazy to think about, huh? If you want to LOVE someone with your WHOLE heart you are definitely not going to always be cool and collected about it. You may lose sleep thinking about them and spend time writing them thoughts or even walk with them just to have a heightened sense of all that is beautiful. Being in the presence of the person you love does that. Do you love Jesus? How? It is something that I am asking myself and encourage you to also.

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrendering of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin."
- William Temple (1881-1944) in Readings in St. John's Gospel