I Raise My Hands Up and Worship?

So I spent my summer working and not really doing anything and this is the first time in a while that I have felt like writing about anything. It’s not really that profound or revolutionary and most of you already know the truth in my topic for this post. Well without any more delay my question. Is singing worship songs and hymns the only way that we can worship God? I know this is kind of a lame question but I think it has some substance to it. I know that not everybody goes to church or a campus ministry that when they say worship they mean sing song time. But I realized last week that when we talk about worship nights in my community or worship time it is quite often a song or a general feel good kind of thing. My point is that worship is not just in the times we praise god explicitly but as a Christian it should be in every thought I have, and action I take.

For one we as a church focus a lot on the singing. When I first started going to church two years I felt so out of place because it seemed everyone knew all the songs. I felt lost and confused which caused me to be disheartened and stop going. Once I got more comfortable and started to look at what the songs said and what they meant then I started to feel more comfortable with the worship part of church. Its uncanny really how fast I was turned off of the idea of singing when I looked around and saw all the hands raised and that one random dude dancing in the hall way. He later became a mentor to me and one of my best friends. Still it was super weird seeing his way of worship. It seemed so different and scary because it was different. We have put the practice of worshiping and infinite God into a box. Even though we say that there are all kinds of worship as a community we are stuck in comfort zone of calling song time worship time. I know for a fact that singing about how great God is not the only way.

Couldn’t how we think and say things be a reflection of God and therefore be a way that we try to give Him glory. The way we show love and reason out hard issues, shouldn’t those be forms of worship? Of course, when we worship we praise and give thanks to God.  We should make sure that we give thanks to him in all things we do. When we give thanks to him with our actions we show love and mercy because of the grace he has shown us. This conscious idea of we are worshiping God is the very point of worship music and is the very point of truly being followers of Christ.

Conscious worship and praise for god comes in all shapes and forms. The very use of the gifts that we are given by him is an act of worship. Like someone who speaks in tongues worships god by using that gift to talk to him and share it with others or a person who has a gift of teaching uses it to teach others. People can worship god with painting, poems, songs, even science. Let’s take science because it may be a little unclear what I mean. I believe that God created the rules of life and process that we see for the growth of organisms and change in matter. And science being the study of matter and life and the world he created then it is a form of worship for me to do science. Another way I worship him is this blog and going to core and all that stuff Christians do. Can we agree that we should truly worship him with everything we do right? Do we?

Not at all. For one we are all flawed and sin on a pretty much daily basis. And for two I know that I don’t give him the credit he really deserves. If I do well on something like a test or get praised for how I think I don’t ever think “I did it for you big man.” But it’s more of a “Yeah that is right. I am awesome.” I for one needed to realize that everything I do in this life is truly for God and happened because of him. I am who I am today and think how I do today because he made me, put me with the family I grew up with, and shaped me these last twenty years. I didn’t really realize that truly until right now. The way that I think, act and, speak is all because of my Father in Heaven, and he deserves to be worshiped in all things that I do. No matter what I do, writing a blog or singing a song or even just thinking and spending time using what he gave me. All the glory is truly his.

Following blind is not following at all,

Cyrus Schaaf