Think Before You Worship

I was reading a news leaflet from a friend of ours today in which he made a comment that grabbed me. The comment was

Most persons in the U.S. are silently and unconsciously worshipping the idol of self-autonomy, consumption and technological progress. This quiet religion may be the singlemost difficult challenge for the Gospel--mainly because nearly all of us who are attempting to bear the news of the Gospel are also either unaware of our allegiances oursleves, or simply overwhelmed and underpowered.

"Wow!" I thought. How I've known this and even said it before (however not quite so elegantly!) I began to wonder what this worship of self-autonomy, consumption, and technological progress looks like. First, I needed to make sure I understood what was meant by "worship".

Harold Best, author of Unceasing Worship, defines worship as, "the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god." (2003, p.18)

Princeton University defines it as:

worship
n 1: the activity of worshipping 2: a feeling of profound love and admiration [syn: adoration] v 1: to love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess; venerate as an idol; "Many teenagers idolized the Beatles" [syn: idolize, idolise, hero-worship, revere] 2: show devotion to (a deity); "Many Hindus worship Shiva" 3: attend religious services; "They worship in the traditional manner"

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

I found the verb definition the easiest to relate to: To love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess.

I believe that we should question and be critical of something before we decide to love it to excess- before we pour out all that we are, all that we will ever become into it. But the only way we could truly worship self autonomy, consumption and technological progress would be if we did so "unquestioningly" and "uncritically". For surely, if we really thought about these things, we would see, beyond a shadow of a doubt, how easily they let us down. How truly unworthy they are of our worship. We worship without thinking. And that is dangerous and unwise.

Ponder what you worship- what you pour yourself into. My devotion often is first to myself. I will even consume -shop, eat, sleep, workout, ________ (you fill in the blank) to make my self feel better. And I know how reliable self is and exactly how worthy of my devotion. So why do I do it? I do it because I don't think. I don't ponder how many times self, or things, or progress have let me down. How about the time I swore I wouldn't do "whatever" again...yet did it anyway. Or the time I bought or ate or slept to make myself feel better...and it didn't. Or the time I depended on a medical cure, a technological advance, to come through for me... and it didn't.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And earth has nothing I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:25-26

There is only One that will never let me down. Only One that will satisfy to the core, time after time after time. There is only One that when we really think about it, when we question, when we evaluate, that comes up worthy of worship. One and One alone. So pour yourself out today- pour like the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume. Pour yourself out on Jesus, who poured himself out for you. Love Him extravagantly. Love Him in a way that might even make people talk, or to stop and stare, or to reprimand you. Love him with abandon. It's what you were made for.