Day 10: Made in God's image

Writing this blog feeds my soul in a way that few things do. I've spent the last few days contemplating why that is. I realized that we are made in God's image and each carry a set of qualities that connect us with the divine. Worship,  I think in part, is tapping into those pieces of himself that God has placed in us and while heartedly offering them back. I think of the book,  the 5 languages of Love,  not sure I'd it had been written but I would wager that we are each also wired with a language of worship.

For me,  I've discovered that creative expression engenders a truer form of worship than I can achieve but other means.  In the act of writing this, God speaks to me in surprising ways.  As sentences form,  my brain connects the dots differently and much better than when I sit and simply read a devotion or mediate on scripture. I notice the same thing when I am planning worship,  writing a sermon,  creating music or art.  God is present and the planning itself becomes a deep act of worship. More so even than the final offering.

I see it in others too.  Teachers truly worshiping as they teach.  Thinkers as they meditate. Servants as they serve. On Sunday,  we come together to be church. I think it's OK, if it doesn't entirely feel like worship when you are sitting in the pew.  God may speak a different spiritual language  for you. 

It has taken me years of struggling with faith,  experimenting with different formats of worship and endless walks in the desert to realize - I am not wired to experience God passively. I can't find God easily in a book, a church service or quiet moment.  I've always wondered why as so many spiritual practices recommend things of this sort. Don't get me wrong,  there are moments when I am deeply touched by prayer or scripture or a church service,  but as a rule I tend to not feel as connected to God by these things as I would like to be.

If I look back and think of times where I feel the Spirit most actively engaging me,  they are almost all creative moments.  Writing this blog each lent,  planning worship for Crossings,  a dinner Biblestudy I did once where I challenged myself to cook a meal that reflected scripture.  In each of these things, my brain would churn all day on the topic. I would wrestle it.  I would create in my mind.  Then,  things start to crystallize  and I realize something new and in that moment God changes my heart.