I've been thinking about my February 27th post about music and worship and the responses I've received so far. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're gonna have to go to the archives. I love Bob's comments that "In a sense, worship through music gives us a taste of heaven, a citizenship that we have yet to taste." In explaining this connection between music and worship Bob writes, "Scripture records that music is the chosen "language" of adoration for the angels and the heavenly beings." I think this adequately explains how and why some people "get high" on musical worship. Get a little taste of heaven, feel great, yet have no idea what you're saying and thus, leave unchanged.
After some reflection, I was reminded of Romans 12:1 which states, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." How are we to worship? We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Brandon made a great comment that for some weird reason he made private... actually, his conclusion was more like a question, "How else can we worship in the way we do through song? How can we worship through listening to preaching? How can we worship through prayer? How can we worship through reading the Bible?" Basically, how can we live a life of continuous worship? The Message, a recent version of the Bible, translates the Romans 12:1 passage as "Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him."
Possibly another reason why we experience worship so greatly through music is that we experience for just a glimpse what it's like to devote everything we're doing at that moment to God. All energy, all doings, all thoughts and movements for one sole purpose... the purpose for which we were made. So, we're brought to a concluding question, "Why do we have to stop when the guitars, pianos, and drums go silent?"
Ahhhh, we people are so incredibly weak! We can't seem to devote our full attention to anything for longer than a few minutes... unless we're entertained at the same time!