The Things We Worship
While I was at work today, I spent some time in an edit bay pulling in footage for a promo I was working on.
The editor who normally works in that bay had just arrived, and was still in the newsroom. But she had already left her book bag and a devotional Bible on the counter next to the computer.
I’m always interested in how different Bibles present the Word, from different kind of translations to different layouts to different levels of notes.
What really struck me about this one was one of several points made in the introduction:
We are all worshippers.
Even people who don’t believe in God are still worshippers. We all have something or someone we worship. As the article said, you can often find out who or what a person worships by taking a look inside their checkbook or their home. What they spend their money on — or who — is a good indication of what the priorities in their life really are.
It’s easy as Christians to convince ourselves that once we accept Christ, the struggle is over: we can pretty much do what we want because we have Christ’s salvation. I’m not sure that’s true: I think being a Christian means always striving to do things that represent a life that would please God.
That point was very convicting for me because it made me think of how many things I often assign priority to over spending time with God. It also makes me feel very grateful that He is infinitely more patient than I am!
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Moe (1)
Many Christians view the purpose of life as doing what you can in your everyday life to please God. The way they would go about accomplishing this is taking the Bible as a set of instructions that are set in stone. By following the do’s and do-not-do’s of the Bible, they feel they will please God and lead a Christian life as it was intended.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but I’ve never seen it that way. Mind you, despite my Lutheran upbringing I’m not really a devout Christian, or even a Christian at all I guess, but for me the act of pleasing God always meant going about it through our interactions with others.
In other words, I don’t think God would want us to simply follow a set of rules, dotting our moral i’s and crossing our ethical t’s. I think that to please Him we only need to do one thing: love and be good to one another.
I never thought for a second that the Bible should be taken literally, verbatim. I never thought that working on the Sabbath meant that you really ought to be killed. Perhaps it is blasphemous of one to question these things, but for me it was the big picture that mattered – and which kept getting overlooked by many.
I don’t think God is very impressed with one’s ability to follow minute instructions. I think He is, however, impressed with one’s ability to overcome our propensity toward violence and destruction, and to live our lives with love, acceptance, forgiveness, understanding, and peace. Were we, after all, not created in His image? Should we tarnish that image with hatred, bigotry, violence, and passing judgment?
I think you’re right. I do think we are all worshippers. I also don’t think it’s all that important what the small details of what we believe in are; I think it’s the bigger picture that is far more crucial, and the way we treat others as we try to understand it.
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