Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
2 Samuel 6:14-15 (NIV)
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Psalm 95:6-7
I have the hardest time getting out of my head. I am always overthinking things. Even in conversations I sometimes have to break the habit of attempting to figure out what the other person will say next, even before they do.
This can be a helpful skill, but when it comes to worship time, it’s the worst. The music would be playing, and the lead worshipper will be exhorting, and the lights and atmosphere and even the temperature would all be just right, and my self-awareness will rear it’s fat head, and say something intrusive like, “this is alright isn’t it?” And just like that I would be out of the mood.
Which is also how I figured out how to make it work for me.
God made us exactly how we are. He knows our quirks and tendencies, our fits and foibles.
He knows, for example, that I have the quirky tendency to have a grammar fit and use the word foible in a sentence.
We are all called to worship. We are all built for it. God our creator king had this intention in mind when He formed each one of us out of His love.
This means that our entire being—quirks, tendencies, fits, foibles—is intended to be used in our worship.
David was a dancer and a singer songwriter, whose ebullience and extroverted personality made him well suited to the role that God had prepared for him. He just so happened to have been created that way.
On the other hand, I am an introverted overthinker, self-conscious, nervous, and awkward, and almost always touched with the tiniest (and sometimes not so tiniest) bit of anxiety. I have an ocean of words inside of me.
However, like David, I am also a worshipper. In my own way, I can and do worship God. In all my awkwardness, nervousness, and etcetera.
It’s a matter of laying it all down, acknowledging who I am and how God made me, and just letting it go, and starting to worship Him.
That’s how worship works for me. Remembering that it’s not a mood, it’s not an atmosphere, it’s not an aesthetic. It’s not the feels nor the emotions.
It’s an act of surrender, giving in and giving up and giving it all to Him who is worthy of it all.
Am I always successful? Goodness no. But I like to think that God knows it. That He looks down, smiles and shakes His head, and says, “that’s exactly how I created you.”
