and heaven and nature sing…
This blog post is an excerpt from my 2020 Advent devotional, "Joy to the World? Christmas and COVID-19."
I love singing. But, it’s not always been easy for me to sing. Anxiety has made it difficult for me to sing in front of people. For a while, this even meant singing in church. I would remain seated while the congregation stood to worship. For a long time, I didn’t realize that my choice not to sing was also a decision not to worship. One does not need to be a good singer to worship, but my decision to disengage during times of worship was indicative of a larger problem. I didn’t want to worship, not if it meant that I was doing something I found hard.
Worship is simultaneously an easy and a hard thing to do. We were created to worship, and each of us have been given unique gifts that help us worship God. The gifts of the Spirit that Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 12 all enable us adopt a posture of worship. While it is true that we often associate creative gifts, such as music and art, with worship, praising God can occur in any medium because worship flows out of our very being. A life in Christ is a life that overflows with worship for our Creator.
That being said, it is not always easy for us to worship. Sometimes, we don’t feel in the right frame of mind and worship feels like a chore. Other times, we struggle to worship because we don’t want to praise God – life is simply too hard.
In Acts 1, Jesus asks the disciples to wait for the arrival of the Spirit together. Since then, the church has gathered together in anticipation of the arrival of the Spirit, and cultivated space that enables people to worship God. Without church, it is easy to think that our ability to worship is also gone. Right now, it might feel as if we cannot worship without physically entering a church building.
I want you to reimagine with me how we think about worship in this season. What might it look like to worship alone, or with your family? Worship is not just that thing that we do together in a church building, although worship can certainly look like that. Worship is the posture with which we orient our lives. It’s why the Bible stresses so much that we must worship God and God alone. Because, it is easy to orient our lives around things that are not God.
In Matthew 2, we read that the Magi came to worship the Christ child. Their journey to Bethlehem was long and laborious and it involved risk. But, even though that was the case, they were firmly fixated on the guiding star, the star that would lead them to Jesus. Their posture was worship. They were dedicated to their desire to bring gifts to the Messiah.
But, their worship took work. It was not an easy journey. So, we need not be afraid if it takes us some time for us to adjust to a new style of worship. The Magi assumed that they would find their king in Jerusalem, but they were wrong. They found the king they were looking for in a lowly stable. Perhaps, revisiting the story of the Magi in this Christmas season will invite us to recenter. The God we worship came to earth in an unexpected way, so we can expect God to show up in unexpected places this Christmas.
Our worship need not look the same as it did before the pandemic in order for God to receive our praise. God delights in all of our worship, whether it is in corporate worship, singing out loud to beloved hymns and songs, or if it involves sitting in a quiet corner and praying through the Scriptures. However we worship, when it becomes part of our spiritual routine, worship overflows. We cannot help but praise, even in the storms.
Invite God to place a spirit of praise in your heart, and ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to sing with heaven and nature in worship this Christmas.
