AL INGHAM

Worship is often associated with music, singing, lifting your hands, closing your eyes and going to church.

But how much more could it be if we look t the true essence of what is worship?

Worship is a choice. We chose to give God our praise and surrender to Him. We sing the words of songs that glorify Him in all his splendor, and sing of how we worship, or how we lift up our hands, or how beautiful He is.

But can we not express this in other ways? Is not the pure essence of worship essentially living for God? In so many ways, we can choose to live in a lifestyle of worship. We surrender our lives to live for Him. Our being and thoughts focus on God. The things we do and the way we treat other people should all bring glory to God. If we centre our lives around doing things that bring glory to God, are we not choosing to worship God with our lives?

So worship can be so much more than going to church and singing songs.

Worship could be a lifestyle.

If we choose.

To be waken by the plain, simple meow of a cat stuck on the roof outside the window of your two story home.
Usually, waking me at such time on the only day I have to sleep in will result in a shrug and a turn to the otherside of the bed to resume my voluentary coma.
But looking out the window to the pleading eyes of a stuck cat in the slight drizzle and gusty gale outside.

So I went dowstairs, and onto the deck. Standing on the bench seating, I could reach the edge of the gutter. I called my improperly set alarm, and eventually her head appeared around the corner upon the roof. It was going to take some convincing for her to take a few steps onto the gutter before I could reach her.
Eventually she came. I wrapped my hands around her and began to lift her to safety. But even though I had both hands firmly around her middle, she still tightly held onto what she knew to be safety.

Sometimes we are like this too. Even though God has his hands firmly wrapped around us to carry us to safety, we still will hold onto our conception of what we know to be true. Our whole idea of what we know to be true, on a human level, we grip tightly, reluctant to let go.

When we do let go, we find ourselves lifted to a level beyond what we first thought was safe; beyond what we tried so desperately to hold onto.