worship

When it comes to worship in a church service, different people have different tastes in the style of music. They will not sing along unless the song is in their style. For me, I only sing along if I agree with the theology of the words. Words, whether they are audible or visual, are symbols representing our thoughts and emotions. They are a partial means of communication, because we cannot fully express ourselves through words. This is especially true in worship. We cannot even inwardly, invisibly, inaudibly, fully comprehend or feel the whole essence of how great God is. How much more impossible it is to try to express that greatness in feeble words. But that is what we do. And we ought to. In the way we live our lives we should be showing by our actions and attitude how great God is. But there’s something powerful about words. The world is created by words from God. The Constitution that holds America together is words. The court system is words: testimonies, arguments, verdicts. The words we say have the power to build up or tear others down in our eyes, in the eyes of others, and in their own eyes. We can speak truth or lies and bring peace and life or destruction and death. Words are so weak yet so powerful.

Now that I’ve said all that, some of the most emotional and intimate times I have with God in musical type worship are when I’m walking around outside making up a tune and singing la la la dun dun mm mm na na or in the midst of an instrumental interlude during a service when the guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist are just worshipping God with their hands.