idle worship

on april tenth's episode of american idol, the final eight contestants sang that famous praise and worship anthem of modern times, "shout to the Lord". now i am faced with many emotions at this point. i am sure that there are some of you out there that it gave goosebumps and chills to and for some of you it might have even brought a tear to your eye. before i go on i want you to know that i believe that God's word, spoken or through song, does not return void. the gospel was proclaimed through song in front of perhaps millions of people and i am guessing that most of the television audience had never heard that song. praise God for that!

here is my dilemma: i witnessed something that i feel that i fight every Sunday morning, idle worship. all of the singers were working on their stage presence, they did a good job conveying the song with their posture. i really want to know if they knew what they were singing. did they really take this song to heart the way they have taken countless other songs to heart this season, or was it just another performance? as the performance was coming to the end, i found myself tearing up. tearing up not because i was overwhelmed at the song but because i was overwhelmed at the fact that i do not know if those singers really know to whom they were singing. how can you really convey the line, "nothing compares to the promise i have in You", if you do not know of that hope?

here is my point. i feel that we as followers of Christ tend to do the same thing when we find ourselves in a corporate worship setting. we become idle in our worship. we sing songs like this with a prescribed emotion. we know how we are supposed to act, when we are supposed to raise our hands, or shout amen! i am desperately in need of a refreshing. i believe the Church is in desperate need of refreshment. i think as a whole we have become idle in our worship. we have become idle in that following Christ is holistic and not just singing or amening on Sunday morning. it is a vibrant walk that stretches us but always renders us speechless when we are faced with the greatness of a sovereign God who in fact has allowed us to participate in His plan of redemption. shout to the Lord indeed! shout of His goodness and mercy.

Jesus i pray that you send a freshness to our hearts so that we may worship you actively in all that we do.