Worship Series #2: WHEN is Worship?

How often have I heard comments, post-service, like this:
- The Worship was great!
- I loved the worship tonight!
- "Thank you for that wonderful time of worship. And now, as we head into the Word..."

Huh? When the last note rang out, was worship done? Is worship confined to a timeslot? WHEN is worship?

It seems in our North American, evangelical tradition, we have allotted a certain portion of time to "Praise and Worship". Often, it comes across as the portion of the corporate service that is the warm-up for the Word of God. Our tradition has almost made it seem as though worship has a starting and ending point.

As I walk alongside my husband, a worshiper and worship pastor, I can't help but be affected by the way that the Lord is opening his eyes to Truth. And as I delve into these thoughts myself, I am increasingly thankful for a husband and worship pastor that points me in this direction. For I have been discovering more and more about worship over the last few years, most of which has flown in the face of what I had thought before: There is no WHEN to worship. Worship is ALWAYS. It is never-ending. It, perhaps, looks different at different times, but there is no start and no stop to it.

My husband recently shared this truth with me: God is a God who continually pours out. We are made in His image. Therefore, we are continually pouring out. The question is, to what are we pouring ourselves out? The recipient of our outpouring is the object of our worship.

So, does that mean that when I'm buying groceries, I am worshiping? When I'm talking to my child's teacher, I'm worshiping? When I'm wiping the runny nose of my fluish child, I'm worshiping?

Romans 12: 1-2 (The Message) says this: So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

It seems that here, Paul is eager to see the Romans being conscious to submit all parts of their lives - not just their times of corporate worship, but even their everyday moments - to the Lord, making each moment an offering. If we are beings of continual outpouring, and the apostle Paul shows the importance of continual submission to the Lord, I can easily draw the conclusion that each moment of my everyday has the potential to be poured out to the Lord as an offering of Worship.

And so, with this perspective, and a heart bent on honoring and exalting the Lord above all else, I can look at this current moment (seated alone with my Bible, my coffee and my laptop) as an opportunity to worship. I can look at 11:00 (when my daughter bursts in on the scene, home from Kindergarten) as an opportunity to worship. I can look at my time sorting laundry or preparing a meal, or driving to the post office all as unique opportunities to honor and exalt the Lord.

How? It's definitely a perspective shift for many of us to go from hurriedly checking off a to-do list, or huffing and puffing through the mundane, to continually finding ways to see the Lord in those moments, to be thankful, to lift Him up and to share Him.

John 4: 23-24 says this: But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

Jesus, as he spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, shared that the place of worship mattered not anymore. He spoke of "who you are and how you live" directly before speaking of worship engaging your spirit in the pursuit of the truth.

To me, this wraps it all up together, it is one and the same. As I live, as I ENGAGE with the Lord, and allow my perspective to be filled by the beauty of His presence in every moment of my everyday, I can fold laundry to His glory - being thankful for a lovely family to care for and for the many, many amenities I have to do so; I can grocery shop to His glory - being thankful for nourishment, physical and spiritual, and for people in the grocery store to pour out kindness to; I can drive to the post office to His glory - praying for those I see along my drive, sharing love with the post-mistress; I can wipe a runny nose to his glory - thanking the Great Physician for His power to heal and for healing my sin-sick soul, and I can gently nurture the beautiful little one(s) entrusted to my care with the love He has placed inside of me. God never leaves me nor forsakes me, and He is in every moment with me. With that perspective, my opportunity to worship Him never ends.

And when I arrive to corporate service on the weekend, I will simply continue my outpouring, and celebrate the beauty of the Body I have to join with in Worship....because worship does not end.