Part 1: Worship
Part One
WORSHIP
Human beings are made for worship. Everyone worships someone or something. In The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton wrote, “The crux and crisis is that man found it natural to worship; even natural to worship unnatural things. . . . If man cannot pray, he is gagged; if he cannot kneel, he is in irons.” Human beings cannot help but assign ultimate value and worth to someone or something. Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone worships God. One’s ultimate devotion can rest in money, success, a person, a garden, a creed, a cause and so forth. Ultimately what we are devoted to will shape our lives.
Many of us are devoted to the same things our culture worships: houses, money, retirement plans, vacations, comforts, success. In and of themselves none of these things is bad. But when we value these things more than we value God, we end up worshiping secondary things. Secondary things can never satisfy core longings. Only a love relationship with our Creator can do that.
In worship we fall into the arms of God and say “Have your way with me.” The early church fathers sometimes spoke of a dancing Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit moved together in a rhythm of self-giving love. Worship is a response to God’s invitation to join the dance. It is a way we tap into what is true about us—we do desire God. As Ruth Haley Barton writes in Invitation to Solitude & Silence, “Your desire for God and your capacity to connect with God as a human soul is the essence of who you are.”
Spiritual disciplines are one way we join the dance and learn basic rhythms and steps that help us respond to God. Disciplines of worship put us in a place to be receptive and responsive to the Holy Spirit’s movements and invitations.
Though all disciplines lead to worship, for the sake of cataloging the disciplines, only classical worship practices have been included under the letter W. The classical disciplines of worship focus our attention on the beauty of the Trinity—the source of all that is good, true and beautiful.
“May the Son of God who is already formed in you grow in you—so that for you he will become immeasurable, and that in you he will become laughter, exultation, the fullness of joy which no one can take from you.” —Isaac of Stella
Celebration
DESIRE | to take joyful, passionate pleasure in God and the radically glorious nature of God’s people, Word, world and purposes |
DEFINITION | Celebration is a way of engaging in actions that orient the spirit toward worship, praise and thanksgiving. Delighting in all the attentions and never-changing presence of the Trinity fuels celebration. |
SCRIPTURE | “The LORD your God is with you, He will take great delight in you, “I will praise the LORD who counsels me. . . . Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; You have made known to me the path of life; “Applause, everyone. Bravo, bravissimo! Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs!” (Psalm 47:1 The Message) “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; |
PRACTICE INCLUDES | Identifying and pursuing those things that bring the heart deep gladness and reveling in them before the Lord. This may include time spent with others, sharing meals, working, serving, worshiping, laughing, listening to music, dancing and so on. |
GOD-GIVEN FRUIT |
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