Jesus is freakin sweet........

We don't realize how incredible Jesus. We just don't.

The other night at Visions, I felt like the Lord was telling me to worship a spell far away from the rest of the group. For those of you who haven't seen Visions, the dance floor at the front of the club is where worship takes place. During worship, the decided majority of stuff happens up front. Up front is where the energy is at, where the music takes you to the pinnacle of thrill in God. It's always been like this in every pentecostal church I've ever gone to. Up front is where the action is.

So at least for me, taking worship to the back of the club is quite an innovation. God is everywhere at once (commonly called by God-researchers-- theologians--- His omnipresence). Yet at least for me, it feels like He is more one place than another the majority of the times we hang out. In the middle of the deepest most passionate throes of worship, I perceive the universe in relation to God differently than when I'm sitting at home or at class.

In the past, worship has been about going to God to learn a different way of seeing all sorts of things. Life, liberty, love and many of the pursuits of happiness all get filtered through the lens of God as I sing to Him with other people (while not the whole of worship qua worship, corporate singing is the first thing my tradition has given me to reach for when I hear the word).

The thing is, there's more to worship. Namely God. Worship from the back of the club taught me that we get so wrapped up in the passion of the moment, hands raised, belting our lungs out with other like-minded souls, that we forget that worship isn't the thrill of a moment or the passion of a group mentality. The point of worship is God qua God-- an unattainable person who has made Himself attainable solely for the purpose of His love.

It starts by not limiting ourselves with just trying to see with new and better eyes, but instead trying to see with His eyes. It starts with asking for His heart because it is His heart- Not because it makes you feel good or important or better.

See, all those things, like singing and the group, aren't bad. Being part of a group, especially one with the Benevolent Creator at it's head, is a beautiful and wonderful thing. It's commanded by God. It's a part of His heart (Heb 10:25). The problem begins when we substitute cooperate passion for personal intimacy: when we think God is more present at the front of the club then at its back.

Ultimately, the core of worship isn't all the peripherals. As my friend Rebecca so eloquently put it, it's about spooning with Jesus. It's getting so close to Him that His breathing sings in your ears. It's touching His heart. It's loving His stare (even when He's angry). It's pursuing Him because we are lovesick as nobody has ever been from the dawn of time hence. His goal is that we recognize that. That we see Who He is and love Him so. I beat this to death but, at the end of everything, there is nothing else. This is the Great Romance!

May it increase!

Daniel