“But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

– 1 Samuel 15:22

Worship & Cotton Candy

The worship that we do at church on Sunday mornings should be a continuation of the worship that we do on a daily basis. If worshipping God is accurately described as “the aroma of our lives,” then the singing on Sunday should be only the icing on the cake and not the cake itself. But often, the opposite is practiced, and the end result is that our spiritual lives are a sugary mess with no real substance—similar, in fact, to my children’s diet if we, as parents, allowed it.

If my kids had their way, they would eat cotton candy for every meal, chocolate before bed, pure butter without toast, sugar directly from the bag, and coffee creamer straight from the prepackaged cups. The result would be hyperactive kids with no desire to sleep, with no ability to concentrate, who are perpetually discontent and fussy, and who argue and disobey at a pin drop. Although they believe that a junk food diet will make them happier, the truth is that such a diet will only make them (and us) miserable.

A similar analogy can be made of Christian worship. If we are worshipping God only on Sunday, we are feeding ourselves a very unbalanced diet that will only lead to discontentment (and maybe even death). We are designed to worship first with our lives, and then with our singing. But doing this is not always easy, and I have fallen into the trap of reversing this order many times. It is much easier to sing about God’s holiness than actually seeking God for my holiness. It is easier to sing about forgiveness, than to ask someone for that forgiveness. But the end result of this facade is a very shallow life that fulfills neither the heart nor mind. The fundamental truth is that it is extremely difficult and unsatisfying to worship God on Sunday if we don’t worship Him everyday with joyful obedience.

Physical & Spiritual Deltoids

My brother was a buff man. When he was attending college at the University of Michigan, he was on the crew team. For those of you not familiar with this painful sport, it entails eight people in a narrow boat with long oars rowing, in perfect timing, as hard and fast as they can without 1) tipping over, 2) vomiting, or 3) passing out. After one year of this torture, my brother had muscles that I didn’t know existed. And because he was also a good looking man with a good amount of sense and sensitivity, he was popular with the ladies. One day my mother told me that my brother was dating somebody. This didn’t surprise me. Then, only two months later, my mother told me that he broke up with his girlfriend. Now, that surprised me. It turned out that his new girlfriend was trying to seduce him into bed. And as the relationship continued, her attempts were becoming more aggressive. Finally, he did the Joseph and Potiphar’s wife thing—he put on his running shoes and ran away! I thought that was impressive. There are very few men who would turn down the advances of an attractive woman.

When Sunday came around and it was time to sing songs of praise to God, my brother could sing with conviction because he was honoring God outside of church. As the hymn, Everlasting Arms, was played, my brother could continue the worship with his heart that his life had already begun—his singing was the icing, and his life was the cake. To me, there are few things more beautiful or powerful than a Christian life that is sincerely lived out in faith and obedience.