Becoming a 'God-groupie'...

I saw a flyer today promoting several upcoming concerts in the Atlanta area. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a concert. Well, I mean I’ve been to a few Christian concerts but aside from that I haven’t exactly met the qualifications of ‘groupie’ or even ‘occasional-concert-goer’ for that matter. I do remember a few concerts from my high school days… yes, I DO remember that long ago… I remember that the concerts were loud and there were lot’s of people screaming and ‘worshiping’ their favorite musical artist. Why do I bring up the ‘concert thing’? I’ll come back to that shortly.
College football is also getting closer… yes, I know its not even July yet but it is closer than it was in May, right? I love college football; tens of thousands of screaming fans, often painted in interesting colors and usually, many of those fans, wearing the same color of clothing in honor or ‘worship’ of there favorite team. At concerts or football games you can feel the energy of thousands upon thousands of people assembled together to show their respect and adoration to and for their favorite performer or team.
Louie Giglio once gave a definition of worship that has stuck with me since the first time I heard it. He said, “Worship happens when we direct our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God.” Of course, that same definition could read like this, “Worship happens when we direct our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on ________.” Then you could simply fill in the blank…. What is it that you worship? Where is your mind’s attention? Where is your heart’s affection? What is it that you worship?
Getting back my earlier topic of concerts… not long ago I saw a music video on the country music channel. It was Tim McGraw and he was performing at a concert. They repeatedly cut to scenes of screaming, crazed fans. They were crying, trying to climb on stage, holding up signs displaying various affirming messages, reaching out to touch McGraw and, in some cases, throwing items of clothing onto the stage. When I see something like that I can’t help but think, “Now that’s good worship…” Oh, I know what you’re saying… “Worshiping Tim McGraw is NOT good worship.” Keep in mind that I DID NOT say that Tim McGraw was an acceptable ‘object of worship’, simply that the worship itself, the display of adoration, was phenomenal. As I watched that Tim McGraw video I wondered how we could take another human being, one limited and sinful just as we are, and show him so much praise while, at the same time, we have a God, a God who loves us, a God who created everything, a God who wants to have a relationship with us, a God who knows the number of hairs on our head, a God who gave His Son as a sacrifice for us and yet we seldom, if ever praise Him with the zeal, fervor and sincerity that we give our favorite musical artist or our most beloved college football team.
We were created to worship; unfortunately, in the Garden of Eden, our relationship with the one whom we were created to worship was damaged. Nothing changed with our ability to worship. It’s what we were created to do and, trust me, we are amazing at it… the problem that occurred with our worship, on that dark day in the garden, was that our relationship with our intended ‘object of worship’ was forever skewed making the worship of God an intentional task rather than a natural act.
What do I worship? What do I value? I think those are great questions to ask of ourselves… do we worship God in the manner that he deserves or are we wasting that worship on something of the world… something that has not, does not and never will care for us like the God who can and desires to give us eternal life, a God who gave His son FOR US… even while we were still sinners.
Who or what do you worship?