The Error of Emotion

The other day I had the opportunity to attend a worship service focused on attracting teenagers to come and worship God. As the service started, and I stood back and watched, I soon realized something. The loud music, fog machines, lights were attractive to some of the students. They were singing, jumping and having fun, but I began having flashbacks from my junior high days.

See, when I was a teenager, I too went to some services of this kind. It was great. We would sing, and pray, and I always just felt so close to God. Sometimes we would cry, sometimes shout. Do not get me wrong. There are times, we can even see this in the Bible, where it is necessary to cry and shout to God. Yet, with these emotionally driven worship services, I came out with a very shallow faith.See, what I was learning through this was that being close to God was a feeling. I would be close to God during these emotionally charged services, and soon the feeling would fade. I would feel alone without this feeling and fight to get it back. This is not what the Christian life is about. Emotions and feelings come and go, and if we base our relationship with Christ on them, our created god will be as changing and fleeting as our emotions. The one and true God is not like that. He never changes. "For I the Lord do not change." Malachi 3:6

There is a danger in building your relationship with Christ on your emotions, and to teach young people to do so is greatly destructive. I am speaking as having been one of those teenagers that was taught that through such services. It took a long time for me to learn the difference between real worship and being emotional. Mark Dever says in his book The Deliberate Church, "Worship is not about pleasing people." That is so true, yet many people today do not remember this simple fact. Worship is for God. He is the only one worthy of worship, and when our "worship services" are focused on the emotional we are focusing on ourselves.

Do not get me wrong. I am not against emotions. God gave them to us for a reason. I am just concerned with emotional services that are giving us the wrong idea of what real worship is. If we go into the services to get emotional, we can. True worship may result in an emotional reaction, this is usually not a happy feeling though. Look at Isaiah when he saw the Lord and Him being worshiped. He said, "Woe is me!"Worship is not about how we feel. Worship is giving to God what He deserves, everything.

Psalm 29:2
Psalm 95:6
Psalm 96:9
Psalm 99:9

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!!!

Lessons Learned from Easy Mac

I am convinced that Easy Mac might be one of the greatest inventions…ever. In four easy steps you have a delicious cup of hot, cheesy goodness.

Step 1: Take off the plastic cover/lid
Step 2: Fill with Water
Step 3: Microwave for 3 minutes and thirty seconds
Step 4: Stir in cheese

All that’s left to do is eat and enjoy!!!!

The other day I got to my apartment and decided I wanted some yummyness. So, I grabbed my bowl of easy mac, took off the lid, put it in the microwave and started cooking it. I headed to my computer,(I had been multi-tasking, which I have a problem of doing. Example: on the computer, watching tv, listening to music, and reading for homework, all at the same time.)as I sat there for about two minutes it suddenly dawned on me. I skipped step 2. I screamed, jumped up and ran to the microwave.

Sure enough, I had some seriously burnt noodles in a melting bowl.
Greatly disappointed at my lack of paying attention to what I was doing, and that I had just wasted a precious Easy Mac bowl, I grabbed another one to try again. This time, I carefully did steps 1,2, and 3. When it came time for step 4. I had a problem. I could not get the cheese packet opened. I soon became angry. This reaction was not the best, because my anger caused me to tear the cheese packet open, spilling the cheese on my counter. It was at this time I cried out, “All I wanted was some Mac and Cheese! Is there something wrong with that?” My roommate replied, “Yes.”

I salvaged what was left in the package and stirred it in to complete my dish. Somehow, it didn’t taste as good that night.

I thought about this tragic night for awhile. If I had only taken my time, followed instructions… If I had only completed the 2nd step.

I was in such a hurry to get to steps 3 and 4, and then to eating. God reminded me that a lot of
times in my life I am in a hurry to get to the next step in my life. Or, maybe I’m in no hurry, and He is ready for me to move on. If I hurry, something is going to be messed up, wasted, and in the long run, I’ll probably have to wait longer for what I wanted. I need to wait on Him sometimes. (Psalms 27:14)

Other times I need to keep moving, when I like where I am at. It sounds completely absurd, but what if I never moved to step 3 in making my Easy Mac? I would never get to enjoy eating it. When we don’t take the steps that God has prepared for us, we are missing out on His blessings for us. (Proverbs 16:9 & 20:24)

So, wherever God has you now, waiting or moving to the next step. Don’t fight Him. Do it your own way, and you might end up with a cup of burnt noodles.