A better analogy is that we are the audience and God is the Performer, doing a million awesome things, all at the same time and all around the universe. He is birthing the doe’s calf in the forest, even while He is leading the whales to their winter feeding-grounds. He is sustaining the man who was fired, and encouraging the student to take a break and rest a bit. The list of things God is doing, day and night, just goes on and on. Jesus said, “My father works and I work.”
Entertainment Worship vs. Response Worship
If we get a glimpse of His brilliance and power and kindness and gentleness and humility and love and wondrous deeds, our hearts will melt, our minds will be amazed and we will spontaneously respond with praise and adoration and thanksgiving. It will just be natural and genuine and real, not out of duty or obligation or commitment. We might just rise to our feet and applaud wildly.
We have all had many experiences of spontaneous outbursts of praise. “O, my God,” we might say when seeing a beautiful sunset. “Wow,” we might say when hearing a really lovely song or a bird singing at the bedroom window.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “We imagine the Divine as distant and inaccessible, whereas, in fact, we live steeped in its burning layers.” We are already living inside of God. We are surrounded by His Presence. He fills these temples we call “bodies.” We call Him “Emmanuel,” God with us. Jesus said, “I AM with you always.” There is now no separation and there cannot be any. We are very much like fish in the ocean, living in water and filled with water.
I believe the answer to consistently having genuine, honest, real, authentic worship is in the worldview that we engender and the theological worldview that we espouse.
- God really is working all things for good.
- The Holy Spirit really is bringing us into all truth, even if it is slowly.
- The New Jerusalem is descending upon the earth already.
- The earth is full of the glory of the Lord.
- The knowledge of the Lord is beginning to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
- It really is “finished,” as Jesus said.
