We are ALL worshippers. That is, we ALL worship……… something
“As I am writing, my flight home to Atlanta is climbing high above the Chicago night. Staring out across the horizon I am captivated by thousands of tiny lights dotting the landscape as far as I can see. Countless twinkling stars of earth, hundreds of thousands of beacon lights. It’s like a sea of little lights…all kinds of lights—streetlights, headlights, house lights, neon lights…all kinds of lights.
And I am thinking, everywhere I see lights, there are people. People everywhere. A sea of humanity. And every single person down there is someone created with amazing potential and purpose. All uniquely fashioned to reflect back to their Creator His beauty and wonder: each one breathing the air of earth in one accord. Each person given life to give Him praise. And that is only the view in one direction, looking out over just one city, in just one state, in just one nation, on one continent.
I’m floored as we jet through the darkened sky. I think of how this earth is home to Billions of worshippers, created to light the darkness with stories of who God is…with echoes of all He has done. But do they know it? Do you know it? Do you know in this moment that you were made by and for God?
While we soar over Chicago, our plane is just a tiny speck to anyone who might look up and see us, a little dot of light blinking its way through the night. Yet on board this flight are even more people. People everywhere. Across the aisle from me, a middle aged-woman is digging into a well-worn Bible. (No, I’m not making this up) She’s leaning forward as she reads, as if she knows this book holds some secret key. I’m thinking how the same God who is worthy of all the world’s worship is the author of the every pages in her hands. She’s holding His autobiography in her hands. There before her eyes is the extension of God’s hand. And she is devouring it in large chunks, miraculously forgoing another showing of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” It’s as if somehow within its pages she has discovered life’s very meaning. It seems we all are eventually captivated by the question of why. Why are we here? Is there a reason for our lives? Is there something we are uniquely destined to do?
It’s the age-old dilemma—what’s the purpose of life? The answer begins and ends with God. Simply put, you and I were made by Him, and made for Him. You and I exist for one purpose alone—to reflect back to God His matchless glory. You were made for a unique relationship with Him. And your life was designed to be a mirror that reflects all the best things about Him to the world around you. Finding our Maker and connecting with His purposes is the one thing we are all seeking.
Okay, to be fair, things have changed on board. Forty minutes have passed, and the woman across the aisle is now reading a David Baldacci novel sending occasional glances toward the movie monitor. Uh-oh the headphones are going on, I think she is being sucked into the movie. Apparently she’s seen My big Fat Greek Wedding a dozen times and is having no difficulty jumping right into the flow. It hasn’t been thirty seconds and she’s already laughing. (Not as loudly as the guy in front of me, mind you, who with headphones on is giving a loud blow-by-blow commentary of each scene to the guy trapped beside him.) I guess tonight we won’t see a miracle after all. The “little movie engine that could” wins again. The unstoppable force of a big fat Greek wedding rambles on. But she still gets major credit for her deep dive into the pages of God’s word. For she—just like the rest of us—is seeking God. And as far as I can tell, finding Him on a plane to Georgia.
(The guy next to me is sound asleep. The lady in front is talking in what sounds like a South African accent. The flight attendant buzzing around is tall and Romanian. A businessman behind me is wide awake and feverishly working.) And there are people all around you too. Today as you work out, sit at the lunch table, or study in the library, there are people everywhere.
All these people.
Do they know their lives have an amazing purpose?
Do they?”
-The Air I Breathe by Louie Giglio
You are a worhsipper. You are. Deal with it. Everywhere you go, everyday, all day long, it’s what you do. It’s who you are. I don’t know if you consider yourself a worshipping person or not, but you can’t help but worship…something.
Think of it this way, worship is simply about value. If I break it down into the simplest terms Worship is simply striving for and seeking out what we value the most. Worship is a thing we all do. We are all about it on any given day. I’m not just talking about the religious crowd. Not just the Christians and Churchgoers among us, I’m talking about every person on planet earth…a multitude of souls proclaiming with every breath what they feel is worthy of their affection, their attention, their devotion. Each step, each move, each action proclaims what they worship. Many people who would rarely set foot inside a church door would probably tell you worship isn’t a part of their lives, because they aren’t religious. But everybody has an altar. Everyone has a throne they kneel before.
If we look all throughout history, we can see the evidence of people worshipping. The timeline of mankind is littered with trillions of little idols. Every culture, every corner of the earth. Every time period has its set of gods that were worshipped. They may not have been gods in name, but they were treated that way by the people. Just circle the globe and see what cultures today are worshipping. Maybe it is alcohol, maybe it is technology, maybe it is football, maybe it is their country, but above all they are all seeking something to reach out for and hold onto. The really compelling question is “why?” What is it that makes us do this? Why do we have the innate desire to strive for something greater than ourselves? Why do we need something to believe in. Why are we so insatiably drawn from idol to idol, desperately in need of something to champion, something to exalt, something to adore? How do we know for sure that there are things out there that are more important than others? Things that deserve our worship. How do we even know that value, beauty, and worth exist?
As the Bible states, all things were created by Him and all things were created for Him. You were made by God, and if that was not enough, God made you specifically for Himself, because He values you. Because of that, you have a deep internal homing device that causes you to long for your Maker and pulls you toward Him. It’s like God placed this magnet inside of us, and it pulls us to Him. Hence, deep in our souls we realize that there is something we fit with, someone we belong to, somewhere that feels like home. God has created that in each of us since birth! Isn’t it amazing? The problem is that most people do not know what we are looking for, so they search for it all over the place. No one has told them about God, and His plans and designs, so they try to fulfill this desire He gave them with other things in life.
Worship does not have to have a single thing to do with God or anything spiritual, because worship is about saying this person, this thing, this experience, this WHATEVER, is what matters most to me. I put this first in my life. That thing might be a relationship, a dream, friends, social status, money, fame, stuff, a name, some kind of pleasure, anything. Whatever it is for you, whatever you call it, this thing or person is what you have concluded in you heart is worth the most to you. It is exactly what you worship. If worship shows us what we value most, we should pay attention to what we do. I’d bet we worship a lot of things more than we realize. Just look at your actions, and see what things are most important in your life right now. It’s easy to find out what we worship. You simply follow the trail of your time, affection, energy, money and loyalty. At the end of that trail you will find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what is of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.
I’m sure not too many of us want to admit that we worship our Xbox, or our jobs, or certain pleasures of life, or him, or her, or our bodies, or just flat out ourselves. But I bet if we are honest we will realize that we worship these things infinitely more than we worship our Creator. The trail never lies. We may say that we value this thing or that thing more than anything else, but when we follow the trail, and see the volume of our actions, we will see what it is we actually value and direct our worship toward. In the end our worship is more about what we do than what we say. Worship is the activity of our soul, not the words that come out of our mouth.
So not only do all people worship, but they all worship all the time. Worship isn’t just a Sunday thing, it is an all the time thing. Right now there are people all around you. They come in all shapes and sizes, personalities, ages and purposes. And they are all worshipping, that is they are continually making decisions based on what is most important to them in their lives, what they value the most. Worship happens everywhere…all day long. Sadly, I think the purest and most passionate forms of worship occur outside of the church or worship service, and they have no reference whatsoever to the God of all Creation. All you have to do is go to the next big name concert at Freedom hall, or how about next years edition of the Louisville/Kentucky college basketball rivalry. Heck, in September the arguments generated by that one basketball game probably generate more passion in your school or office building than God has ever gotten on the Friday before Easter. But seriously, let’s take a look at these events. Many of you may not remember this, but in the 80’s Michael Jackson was THE event to see. He had an unbelievable following all over the world. Here is Louie Giglio’s reaction to a video he saw of Michael Jackson Concerts:
“Talk about worship! In Multiple cultures all over the world, mobs of people numbering in the hundred’s of thousands were glued as one to his every move. On every continent the gathered like an army, waving their hands in the air. Some fell to their knees. Others strained with outstretched hands, hoping for a brief touch from his. Seared in my mind is the image of one young girl with a look on her face of total awe. I couldn’t believe it. What I was watching was some of the most intense worship I had ever seen…anywhere. Far more “full-on” than much of what I’d experienced inside the church. And for what? Granted Michael Jackson is a living legend when it comes to entertainment, but he is not a great god. Nat even close. Yet the worship was phenomenal, demonstrating the God given capacity for adoration that is rooted in the soul of every man.”
Don’t you see it when your favorite band plays, or your favorite team plays? Maybe you are even guilty of it yourself. People naturally doing the thing it seems we were all created to do. Worship.
So take time today to do two things. First, analyze your life. Follow the trail and see what throne it leads you too. Figure out what you are worshipping the most. Second, pay attention to the people around you. Louie saw so many things on the airplane trip back to Atlanta. He noticed so many things about the people on that plane and how they chose to spend their time. What are the people around you worshipping? Where are they trying to find their home? Where are they seeking their happiness? What can you do to help them?
