Are You Thirsty?

How was worship this past Sunday?  Have you ever found yourself asking that question?  Often times the answer sounds something like this: "It was great - the worship team played my favorite songs, the sermon was inspiring, I was deeply moved."  Or it may sound like: "It was ok."  Or it may sound like: "I didn't know any of the songs and the sermon dragged on way too long."  It is possible that all three of these answers could be given by three different people in the exact same church service.

But what if worship is more than a song or a sermon?  What if worship has more to do with being in awe of God than songs and sermons?  What if worship happens not just on Sunday mornings but every minute of every day?  What if the problem is not "if" we worship, but "who" or "what" we worship?

I have an ever-growing fear that we often settle for less.  C.S. Lewis said nearly 75 years ago, "Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."  (from The Weight of Glory)

What if worship is supposed to be "more?"  What if we settle for the mud puddle when God wants to show us the ocean?

Jesus' most in depth conversation on the topic of worship was with a 5 timed divorced Samaritan woman.  This woman was a "hot mess."  She was probably dysfunctional and toxic.  She was disliked and shunned by her community, but here we see Jesus intentionally pursuing her.  Jesus knew she was a "hot mess" but Jesus also knew she was thirsting for something "more."

What about you?   Are you thirsty for "more?"

Jesus knew the Samaritan woman had drunk from lots of different wells and each one left her soul dry and desperate.  Jesus comes to give her a different drink - one that "will become in her a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14).

Do you have this spring of water welling up to eternal life?  Jesus is continually pursuing each one of us and offering us this living water.  May we be people who drop our water jar of lesser things and embrace "the more" of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth.

See you Sunday,

Steven