More than a feeling...

Brad Delp's falsetto tones ring out in my ear, "It's more than a feeling...more than a feeling...when I hear that old song they used to play...it's more than a feeling." What could possibly be more than a feeling?

One week ago today we headed up a mountain to visit Camp Ghormley, FOS youth's annual winter camp (visit fosyouth.com or foscamps.com for more information). We left changed. And yet, every year kids return from camp on a spiritual "high" that they seem certain will evaporate and suddenly they find themselves clinging to the thoughts of the next big even to reestablish that high, or that feeling. Just a few days ago a kid asked me, "What if I don't feel God? It doesn't really feel like He is close to me. I just can't feel it." Or so often I have heard, "I am trying to worship but I am not really feeling it."

What swells in my heart in those responses is not anger, inasmuch as it is indignation. We have taken what was intended for God and made it about ourselves. Worship is our giving praise to God for all that He has done, it is the stirring of our affections for Him in the face of His greatness. It is not goosebumps and a warm feeling spreading over our body as the bridge to our favorite song gets as loud as possible while the drummer's lead foot pounds the kick into the microphone causing our microscopic hearts to pound at the same pace...this is not worship.

Worship is not inspired by music alone, nor is it inspired by anything else alone. Worship is inspired by God. Our worship of God is not dependent on how good the music is, or how good the preaching makes us feel. Our worship for God hinges on one fact- "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We have never and will never deserve the mercy of God, but He has granted it to us without reason. That to me is reason to worship. That stirs my affections for Him in all things, not just a "warm-fuzzy" lifting my hands. To know that the God of the universe loved us enough to send His Son to die for us, not because we are great but because He is, so that we could be with Him in eternity is enough to awaken worship in my heart. What does it take for you? A "motivational speaker" making you "feel good" when you leave the church on Sunday? A loud speaker with a sub-woofer the size of Sioux Falls, South Dakota pounding your rib cage to death? Or the message of the Gospel, "For while we were still weak (dead), at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Is that enough for us to devote our lives to a most holy God no matter what the cost? I hope so...or else we are guilty of idolatry.

A student sharing her story said this: "I never thought I was a bad person before. I didn't have a lot of 'sins' to confess outright. Then I realized- I'm TERRIBLE! I fail so much, and yet God loves me because Christ died for me. I don't know what to do with that other than love Him back."

I can still hear the music..."When I hear that old song they used to play...more than a feeling...I begin dreaming...it's more than a feeling..." Is it more than a feeling? Indeed it is- it's called faith. Even when you can't "feel Him" anymore, you know He is still there.