Surrender

Recently, we have been going through what it means to be a life worshipper and the word "Surrender" keeps coming up in my mind. I Keep asking the question week in and week out, "What does it look like to surrender my life to my Savior?" I keep asking the question because it keeps getting asked in my own life. Worship is such a subjective idea.

When we look at worship in our churches, we often label worship as the time of singing right before a message. We often label the time of worship that 20 minutes of songs that a worship team leads or is lead from a piano or an organ. Reality is, this is worship in a micro sense. It is only when we begin to think about worship in a Macro sense that we become "life worshippers" that are willing to surrender fully to the God of the universe. I have used the simple definition of worship as "responding to who God is." There are several parts of this "simple" definition. First, we have to know who God is if we are to respond to him. Then we must know how we best respond. Some people are feeling driven and so they will look best to respond to God with feelings. Other people are more concrete and need to do something to respond to God. Feeling something and doing something can both be responding to who God is in a Macro worship type of thinking. When I surrender all of who I am and say that all that I do needs to glorify and honor the God of the universe, this is a step towards responding to who God is with all that I am.

Micro thinking in the area of worship can lead to disillusionment with the idea of worshipping the God of the universe. I don't know exactly what to call the time that we sing songs in our church services but at this point we call that time "worship." Which is only part of the truth. I worship well through song and this is my means of responding to God. It is not my only means, and for some people it isn't any means at all. It doesn't work for them to respond to God that way. I wonder what would happen if we changed the name from "Worship time" to "song time" or something like that. I wonder if people would be allowed to have a much bigger broader view of not only worship, but of the God that they worship.

In the Old Testament, I am well aware of times that David cried out in song and with music and with harp and lyre and even some percussion instruments and I recognize that as worship, but in Malachi, I find a God that isn't happy with the worship that is happening. It had become "micro" worship. It had become something that a group of people were forced to do and their hearts were not in the worship. God is not happy with this, and unleashes his wrath and justice on a people group that chose to engage in this micro worship without heart instead of Macro life worship where they were engaged with their hearts and understanding who God was together.

I desire to be a life worshipper and to do so, I must be able to expand my view of worship beyond the four walls of the church. I am constantly asking myself the question, "What does it mean to worship God while I 'mow the lawn' or 'change Isaiah's diaper' or 'play a game of ultimate frisbee with students' or 'blog'?" And the reality is that the God of the universe really is the God of the universe and over ALL parts of my life and living and being and within all that I do, I have the privilege and the opportunity to surrender all that I am and have and are to him to worship him!

God, let me be a life worshipper. I surrender. My hands are up and my heart is open...