I was looking the other day at a cruise brochure that Holland-America had sent me. Ever since Ken and I took a vacation years ago on the Westerdam, we’ve been on their mailing list. And I don’t mind – I love looking at those brochures about cruising the Caribbean… the turquoise waters, dark blue skies and white sandy beaches. I don’t know if Ken and I will ever do it again, but we have the joy of some pretty special memories.
I remember the first time I ever went on a cruise – it was back in 1958 and I was a 9-year-old kid on a steamliner sailing with my mother and grandmother to Bermuda. When we woke up the first morning, we were out in the ocean and the sky was cold and gray. The swells in the ocean were big and threatening and a bitter wind and a spitting rain kept most of the passengers indoors sipping tea behind the glassed-in deck. My mother took Grandmom and me into the auditorium to watch a slide presentation about ocean currents and trade winds. There I was sitting in the dark, it was a warm room and listening to the click-clicking of the projector made me sleepy. For the life of me, if we were to learn about ocean currents and winds, why weren’t we outside on the deck holding onto the railing with our faces into the storm? Why were we sitting in this dark room trying to experience the ocean secondhand? The real thing was just right outside. Why weren’t we out there?! It was exciting out there. It was scary and wonderful out there. What were we doing in here?
You know, this is a little like our worship of God. Because worship means astonishment; it means wonder; it means amazement. When we worship we should be marveling and amazed at the greatness of God. Worship should ignite within us the same kind of response as a child would have holding onto the railing of a ship and feeling the wind and the rain and seeing the roaring ocean. It should leave us breathless at the glory and greatness of God.
However, our worship of God can become small and shriveled when we fill our minds with secondhand information about Him, when we settle for a less-than-real experience of who He is.
Friend, you have a chance this Sunday to encounter God in that way. So please don’t let your worship decline into a performance of mere duty. Don’t allow the childlike wonder and awe of what you know to be true about your Savior to be choked out by routine or ritual or second-hand information about Him or what is the real experience of who He is. You have a capacity for worship and a capacity for joy which you can scarcely imagine. God made you that way – and He is all astonishment and amazement. He can awaken within you a capacity to enjoy Him and be amazed by Him. So this coming Lord's Day, step outside yourself and feel the bracing reality of all that God is in Christ Jesus. And then be blown away as you respond in worship.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends