How and Why We Worship
Lydia Mulkey
September 19, 2023
God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.
~John 4:24
As I sit down to write this evotional, my attention is divided in a thousand directions. I am thinking about my dearest friend from high school who lost her wife yesterday. I am thinking about what I need to get done coming back from the time off I took to get married. I am thinking about the joy of this weekend. I am watching the emails and texts come in. I am wondering what I will eat for lunch! I am feeling stretched and pulled and anything but focused. I write this so honestly because I doubt there is a person reading this who cannot relate! We are so often asked to divide our attention.
One of my favorite definitions of worship that I have come across is “to set all of your minds’ attention and hearts’ affection on one thing.” Given that definition, I would say that worship is often challenging! There is so much competing for my minds’ attention and my hearts’ affection. But, when I do set all of my minds’ attention and hearts’ affection on the God who is love, I am enveloped in that love and I know it is able to emanate from me. Unfortunately, all to often what emanates from me is the stress and concern swirling around within me!
I know that if I want to be a channel of that love, I have to find moments in my day and my week when I pause and remember that there is something more powerful than I am and more able to handle these competing thoughts and tasks than I am. If I can tune into that; if I can set my minds’ attention and hearts’ affection on it, I might just find myself in the quiet center of that love.
Holy One, quiet my mind and heart until both are set on you. May I find myself in the quiet center of your love. Amen.
