Worship for the Spiritual Junkie
Last week my cell group and I went on a world religion field trip. We visited a couple places of worship (Jewish Synagogue, Buddhist Temple, Hindu Temple, Sikh Temple and Muslim Mosk) . The thing that stood out for me was the simplicity of their worship.
It starts with a modest worship areas. Like some of these places were basically 4 walls, a roof and carpet floors. Unlike some of our Christian counterparts where there are stain glass windows, stadium seating, giant projector screens, spot lights, expensive band and sound equipment. Don’t get me wrong, I would love for my church to have all that too. But it gets me thinking; If other religions can worship in such modesty then why can’t we? Why is it that we (North American Christians) need sooo much stimuli? bigger picture… BIGGER sound… MORE POWER… It is like a drug, we need more in order to get us into our next artificial spiritual high.
Back in the day when Jesus was teaching, the only bigger thing he needed was bigger hill because the synagogues were probably not big enough for his crowds. Jesus didn’t have to whip out his Electric Harp with 1000 watt sound system and jam out the latest worship song in order to draw crowds to him. Jesus did have His miracles working for Him, but miracles was not all He did during His ministries. Jesus taught for hours at a time and people listened for hours at a time. Think about the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Jesus wouldn’t have needed to feed the 5,000 if he only taught for 30 minutes a week. Why have we limited word of God to just 30 minutes a week? Is this just our way of getting our spiritual quick fix?
Have we become spiritual junkies?
I will be the first to admit. I need Worshipers Anonymous. I need to get myself back to a sustainable spiritual level. Where these highs do not end in spiritual withdraw. Where the only spiritual high is from the Holy Spirit.
Maybe I just need to get back to the simplicity of worship.
to be continued…
