God Wants Our Hearts, Not Our Dignity

As he returned home, David's wife saw him dancing in the street in nothing but a smile. Upon rebuke, David responded, "It was before the Lord, who chose me...I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes." David's wife had no children to the day of her death.

Yes! This is the response we should have. Our God is worthy of everything we have to give him. He demands it. Yet, like Michal, we get wrapped up in ourselves, for fear of looking like an idiot.

If, like me, you are a member of the Church of Christ, this message is not what we would like to hear. How can we reconcile orderly worship that we find pleasing to God in I Corinthians with the above passage about David? God doesn't change. He's the same God of David as he was the God of Paul.

The answer is not really a difficult one. Avoid dancing naked in the streets nowadays as that is considered illegal and punishable by jail or fine or both. But, DO give every ounce of your heart to God every minute of every day in worship. Raising hands is no longer a no-no for me. Clapping is perfectly acceptable. Kneeling is admirable. Running through the aisles with a tamborine is not for me, but so long as it is not a distraction from the otherwise orderly worship, I fail to see it as misguided.

In my church though, running with tamborines would be a distraction. So how can we be David in a church that's Paul? Again, I think the answer is in where the heart is. Are you giving 100% of your voice to God? Are you acknowledging his greatness with 100% of your being? The answer is probably "no." I've yet to ever be that way. Too often, I'm thinking about how off the pew-force is. Or maybe, I'm thinking about how fun the bass line is to sing. Or more simply, maybe I'm just too tired to concentrate fully.

But, we need to be able to answer our detractors, "I am celebrating the Lord right now. And I will continue to celebrate the Lord until I collapse of exhaustion. I look like an idiot, I feel like an idiot, but you haven't seen anything yet."

Disclaimer: There is a point where you can truly turn unbelievers off by the seriously cooky things you do. I would never feel that I have served my mission to go out into all the world making disciples of all the nations if I led someone away from Him despite my good, personal intentions. Church is still a community and society rules do apply.

So what will change? I will try to be more open to the emotional aspect of worship. I've got the orderly part down. This post is hopefully helpful to others, but if not, then at least one person's life has a new perspective because of it.