Worship, GCSC Style

The following is my "worship testimony" that I was asked to share at last night's worship time with the GCSC (Georgia Christian Student Center, for those of you who don't know) and the youth group from Campus View. It was already written, so it's a ready made blog post (minus some slight editing), yay! =)

Worship

"When Donnie asked me to speak tonight, it caught me by surprise. I really had to think about my answer, because I feel extremely unqualified to speak to you guys. To be honest, my spiritual life really has not been where it needs to be for a while now. I was kind of in one of those stages where I think I want to work on improving, but in actuality I just ignore the problem and go about my life. But within the last 2 weeks, it really seems like God is trying to tell me something, to tell me that I need to get back to Him. Between a sweet friend asking me to study the Bible with her, and being asked to step up and contribute more of my myself here at the GCSC, I have really felt God tugging at me, telling me to straighten up and fly right.

Realizing this helped me not only start taking steps to correct my problems, it made me realize that I need to change my mindset when it comes to worship. So that's what I'm going to attempt to share with you guys tonight, a look at this mindset that I'm now striving to work toward, and maybe it'll be something that someone else can use. Really, this idea has come from all of my experiences here with the GCSC.

In my Christina life, I've encountered a lot of people and literature that are concerned with the "proper" way to worship. People who love to dissect really tiny details of the technicalities of worship, or texts that kind of ignored the big picture of Christian life and honed in on little bitty things. I never got very excited by any of that, but I didn't have any real problem with it either.

And then I came to college and started hanging out with the crazy crew here at the student center, and I started seeing a new type of Christian life. The life advocated here can be summed up in just one word: love. Love for God, love for each other, love for this campus, love for the disadvantaged, love for the world. It is truly amazing how integral love is in this ministry. I had never experienced anything like it. And I began to see that being a Christian wasn't nearly as complicated or rigidly constrained by rules as I'd grown up believing. In fact, it was pretty simple. Just let every action, every thought, every waking moment be ruled by love. (Though obviously, actually achieving that goal is really hard, as everyone in here has probably found out by now. I know I have)

So that made me think. If every other part of the Christian life hinges on love, then why should worship be any different? Well, it's not. At least, I don't think so.

Usually, we associate "worship" with coming to a church service or devotional, singing, praying, and listening to a lesson with other people of faith. But when I sat down and thought back over my true worship experiences, the ones in which I felt that awestruck, reverential, totally in love with God feeling that categorizes what I think is true worship, I realized that most of them usually happened in a place far removed from a typical church building or worship service.

For example, anytime I take the time to slow down and marvel at Nature, at the grandeur of a mountain view, or the intricacy of a flower, or the paint-brushed glory of a flaming sunset, or just the simple pleasure of a soft, cool breeze on a hot day, I'm often reminded of how wonderful and glorious my God is, and how much He loves me. That's a time for worship.

Or the times when I'm with a person I love, and who loves me. That's a time where, if I allow myself to be, I can be totally awestruck by God. I mean, any God who loves me enough to give me someone to love me, comfort me, to be my friend and support me is absolutely amazing. Try it sometime, when you're with someone you love, whether it's a friend or family member or bf or gf or fiance or spouse...just look at them and be amazed by the fact that they are there beside you, and that God gave them to you. You'll probably agree that a moment like that is perfect for worship.

Another time for worship is when we are given the chance to share our blessings with those who are disadvantaged. Say, last Thursday, under the bridge. God allowed us to fellowship and show love to people that are often overlooked. That's a time for worship too.

Now of course, I'm not saying that worship never exists within a church service or devotional time. Because it does. Tonight we're experiencing that. And I've experienced it other times as well, whether it was in devotional time on a mission trip where I could look around and see God shining through the faces of all my friends as they sang, or just during a regular Family Time when you can just feel everyone around opening their hearts to let God move.Those are times for worship as well.

Thinking about all of this made me realize, though, that limiting worship time to only the traditional is an instance of us putting God in a box. If God is everywhere, as we know He is, then we should worship Him everywhere. And whenever we approach something with a mind set on loving and honoring our Father, we worship Him. Whenever we feed and befriend the homeless, not because we're "fulfilling commands" or "doing what's right", but because we genuinely love them, we're worshiping. When we make an effort to include new students here in our family, not because it's what Adam has asked us to do, but because we want to show them the love that we experience every day, that's worshiping. When we thank our bus driver or waitress or custodian, not because it's polite, but because we are truly thankful for what they do, that's worship. Whenever we do anything to demonstrate our love for God, not because we want to be known as good people or even "good" Christians, but because we want to show God how much we love Him and are thankful for His blessings, we are worshiping. If we approach every action with the desire to live out John 14:15, "If you love me, keep my commandments", then we can live in a constant state of worship. And wouldn't that be a wonderful way to live?"

~Victoria