Re: [Worship] worship activities (proceedings)?

[Dean Thomas <deanthom@mindspring.com>]

Hey Will,

I hear your pain! Understand that I am one that fights regularly with what my
pastor has labeled "dualism", the compartmentalizing of life into sacred and
secular. Yes, all of life is supposed to be worship or a praise. Yup, but you and
I both know that we generally fall kind of short of the goal too often. At least
if you know me, we could agree about me.

SailwayWill wrote:

(I love the name BTW. Where do you sail? Moraine? Erie?? Write me off list. I
used to be from New Castle)

>     I object to this artificial distinction.  All of life is really worship
> but if you want to divide our lives and compartmentalize our lives into
> formal/public worship and private/informal worship go ahead.

Thanks. I can live with that for now.

> As someone who performs weddings...

This is a great place to jump in!

Since the day that I took my vows and signed on the dotted line, I have been
married. Y'know what, for nearly 30 years, I have been married with every breath
that I took and everything that I did.

HOWEVER. When I am at work, I am no less married than I was when I woke up next
to my wife, but most of the time, when I work, my marriedness really does not
much affect my workingness. When I get really entrenched in some project, there
will be HOURS during which my wife does not enter my thoughts. It does not mean
that I am not married or less married or anything like that.

And HOWEVER again, when I am at home and she is at home and both of us are awake
at the same time (rarer and rarer these days), neither are we MORE married,
although we do tend to indulge in more activities that would indicate that we are
married. Conversation, times together, a date now and then, a hug, a kiss, a
smile, and other activities and expressions of our marriedness.

There is a dichotomy. It is a hard thing to live and a harder thing to explain.
For me there is marriage and there is Marriage and there is MARRIAGE.

Similarly, there is worship, Worship and there is WORSHIP. And there is stuff
beyond that but I am limited by our plain text formatting. 8^)

I'm not saying that my work is not worship or that by working I am not
worshipping. I am no less married by working than I am less a Christian by
working. Yes, I make a regular decision in my working life that I will do my work
as unto the Lord, with great energy and the best that I can offer. The ATTITUDE
is the sacrifice, IMHO, and it is the ATTITUDE that kind of becomes the worship,
in a sense. Do you hear me trying to explain away dualistic attitudes that could
be perceived by one looking for them like my pastor?????

When I am busy showing my wife I love her by any number of mundane and
sensational means, am I less a Christian? Am I worshipping God? Yes, in a sense,
again, doing all things as unto the Lord. But am I Worshipping or WORSHIPping
God? For me, no.