Feasting in Worship

It's Easter Sunday and I have made it to the cross. It's been quite the lenten journey, but today is a day where we truly feast. We celebrate and rejoice in the resurrection. We feast in Worship. 

*photo credit: SHL Media

For the past 10 days I have been living in a spiritually charged environment where I spent twice a day in worship with 300 students and leaders participating in MB Mission's SOAR Heartland program. As I entered the passion week, it seemed appropriate that my last lesson in feasting (at least for this lenten season) was learning and being challenged to feast in worship. I'm not talking about that "stand there and sing some praise and worship songs" kind of worship, but rather the "chill down your spine that sets the hairs on your arms standing" kind of worship that ushers you into a thin space with Jesus. 

There were moments throughout the week when I experienced this kind of worship - where there was intimacy and connectedness with Jesus. Him and I, we met in our meeting place, there was dancing and joy and even tears as I stood in His presence. But there were also moments during those time of worship where I found my head and heart completely distracted and unable to enter that thin space. It was frustrating - I wanted to go there and experience the intimacy, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't. There was a disconnect. But, as I considered what it meant to feast in worship, I realized that sometimes you need to go through the motions of worship even if your heart does not feel fully engaged because the Lord of all Heaven and earth is worthy to be praised. If I were only to worship when I "felt" like it, worship would be few and far between. We are asked to feast in worship despite all of the other stuff that consumes our life because that is what we have been called to and what we have been created to do.

This morning, amidst to the paska and easter eggs, I found myself worshipping at church and fully engaged, despite the exhaustion that has overtaken my body. I entered the throne room, worshipping in complete awe and reverence that the God who created all things sent his one and only Son to die on a cross so that I could live. I have been redeemed - the ugliness in my life and the sin that entangles my heart no longer have power. The curtain separating us from the holy of holies has been torn - the Spirit of God has been released and we have been given authority through the name of Jesus Christ! Because of the events that took place all those years ago, I am free to enter that throne room and worship my God. I am free to feast in worship.

"Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!"

~Romans 5:9-11

Christ has Risen!