Find Yourself Worshiping

I’m realizing the sweeter days are not just those days when calm rules, when peace is evident in behavior, but when peace allows for extravagant praise.

When my boy’s giggles are allowed to escape the confines of their bedroom after they are put to bed.

When my own conversation rattles longer than I intended.

When a friend lingers long at the door, interjecting three more paragraphs of chit-chat after saying goodbye.

When mud gets tracked in.

When laundry is overflowing.

When the pot boils over.

Life isn’t out of hand. Real life is a cup running over. Noise, mud, spills and all are the fruit of living fully, and living fully comes from a peace that doesn’t pester us to be quiet, but frees us to be what God made us to be.

Giggles are hushed,

Tasks are caught up,

Mud is mopped away and laundry gets washed. We don’t allow the noise to become chaos, but we can allow the spirit of the noise to ring much longer when it resonates on ears of worship.

Recognizing the Creator in the life and energy of a child. Recognizing the relationship of the Trinity in our need to share with friends. Recognizing the abundance of our Father in the provision of food, clothing and shelter that must be maintained. This is worship. This is peace.

I am thrown by this kind of life, but urged to get up and look at it again.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Romans 12:1

By the mercies of God. Not by His judgment or by His conviction, but by His mercy present your bodies. Your flesh, that part of you that most connects you with the world and it’s endless need for control, kingship, self-worship.

This holy sacrifice then is still alive, not a laying down of what we enjoy, but a surrender of what we view as perfect, our instinct for ruling our small kingdom.

Instead, we act on what He built within us to express, sing the notes He so carefully scored into our hearts, live as He created us to live, this is worship.

Running the bases as fast as we can and sliding into third head first.

Watermelon juice running down our chin.

Giggles.

Cheers.

Freedom.

Singing as loud as we can in the back yard.

Swinging my arms with my four year old as we walk along the sidewalk, knowing full well how awkward I look.

In this expression of worship we realize an identity that stands against sameness, expectation and comparison. In this worship we find ourselves more like Him. Alive as He is alive and righteous as He is righteous.

“Give me, Lord, the mind of Jesus,
Keep me holy as He is;
May I prove I’ve been with Jesus,
Who is all my righteousness.” ~J.H.T.