Unfortunately God and grief
are not words that are used very close together in some forms of spirituality.
I remember being in a church service where the worship leader asked the
congregation to forget about all the "stuff of the week" and enter
into worship of God. It seemed as if he thought that we could just come to God
and grief would just fly away. I wanted to remind him that the Christian faith
believes in a God who comes to humanity in their "stuff of the week"
condition, not their dressed up Sunday best condition.
True worship does not come
by denying our pain and asserting that God is worthy of worship. True worship
comes only as we are real and authentic with God about our struggles, doubts,
and pain and then make a choice to worship. We can enter into real worship when
we acknowledge life is what it is and in spite of that reality we choose to
glorify God.
-- Janelle Shantz Hertzler in an article titled “God
and Grief Meet in True Worship,” www.JOURNEYTHROUGHGRIEF.com
#3144
Thursday, January 17, 2013
1 comment:
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Thanks for sharing timely truth about true worship. Some of my best worship has been during my worst heartache. Sometimes I leave worship “healed” and sometimes I leave worship with deep joy in the midst of and in spite of my continued heartache. My losses cause me to walk with a “limp” but worship puts a “spring” in my limp!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your ministry of Sound Bites.
Larry Pillow
Renewal Ranch
Conway, Arkansas