Made to Worship...I Wish We Could Grasp That

In this past Sunday morning's service, we recognized the high school graduates. This is always a bittersweet service for me. I don't know why I am moved to tears at the thought of graduations, but I am. I even cried during the Saved By the Bell high school graduation. (The reasons for that will make a lot more sense if you read my previous post!)

After all of the graduates were recognized, the congregation sang a song. It wasn't anything new. It was a song we sing often: Chris Tomlin's Made to Worship. But it seemed new. Just moments before, Jarrett had reminded those teenagers that God is doing a new thing. He is making us new. He is moving us to new places. He is showing us new things. And He showed me something new through the congregational singing of that song.

He had filled our hearts with wonder

So that we always remember

You and I were made to worship

You and I were called to love

You and I are forgiven and free

When you and I embrace surrender

When you and I choose to believe

You and I will see

Who we were meant to be

It became my prayer of sorts for those graduates. First, I was overwhelmed by the idea that God has purposely filled our hearts with wonder. There are reasons we don't understand things about this world. There are reasons we don't know everything there is to know about God and how He works. And that's okay. God has placed wonder in our hearts so that we will always remember our purpose and our role.

"I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work." God's Decree."For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think." Isaiah 55:8-9

Oh, when I think of all the things those students are going to wonder about. What major to choose? What job to take? What class to take? What clubs and organizations on campus to join? What friends to make? Should I go out with my friends the night before exams? Should I go to these places everyone else is going that I know aren't pleasing to God? Should I drink this? Should I smoke that? Should I cheat? Should I copy this from the Internet? Should I respond to this text message? Should I tell that teacher how I really feel? Should I give that campus cop a piece of my mind? Should I go to church this morning? Why did my friend leave? Why did my heart get broken? Where are you God?

So many questions. And the world wants to provide so many wrong answers. The world wants to throw answers in there that will take them down paths of pain and destruction. But God has placed wonder in our hearts so that we may recognize our shortcomings and give Him the glory! So that we may recognize our weaknesses and let Him make us strong. So that we may remember who He is and that we are His children, loved beyond measure, given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.

The questions aren't bad. The questions are normal. The questions lead to growth! As we got to the chorus of the song, I begin praying with all of my might that these students would remember that we are made to worship and we are called to love. I want them to hold onto that hope! I want them to remember that truth! Oh, if I had remembered that in my own journey, how different it might have been. How many other people might have seen Christ's light through my life if I had remembered that simple truth. Some of those questions might have had different answers for me.

Again, I recognize the validity of the questions. The questions and doubts are healthy things that force us to determine what we believe and why we believe it. The questions and doubts can bring us so much closer to the throne of God. The questions and doubts help us see how God is working in ways that we never imagined. But with the questions and doubts come bad choices, wrong decisions, consequences, pain, sorrow. My initial instinct is to want to save them from all of those things. And I pray that they will be. I pray that God will have His hand on each of them and that the foundation they have built will be like rock, strong and able to withstand the storms of life. I pray that God will sustain them in their times of wonder and remind them of His sovereignty.

And I pray for myself. I pray that I always remember that I am made to worship. I am made to bring Him glory. I am made to lift Him up. And doing these things is a choice. I recently heard someone say, "You don't drift into hope. You choose hope." So today, I choose hope. I choose to always have an answer for the hope that I have. I choose to live my life in such a way that points others to the light of my Savior. I choose to make choices and use words that bring Him glory. I choose to fix my eyes on Him. I choose to recognize that my sovereign God is both the author and perfecter of my faith!

I choose to remember who I'm meant to be!