Worship
For the past 10+ years I have been trying to figure out what worship is. I've come to conclude with certainty that it is not limited to singing and praying, though it feels like that in some churches. Here, instead, is my working definition: Worship is a response to an encounter with God. Let me elaborate a bit. First, how do we encounter God? I think that happens in a wide variety of ways. We can encounter him in relationships, in circumstances, in nature, certainly in his word.... We can encounter him in his different roles or personalities; Isaiah calls God "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father." My own standing before God also impacts how I encounter him: as a sinner in need of grace and forgiveness, as a sick man needing healing, as a wanderer needing direction.... These different ways we encounter God elicit in us different reactions. The book of Psalms is a wonderful anthology of a man who met God in all these ways. For David, an ar