Worship discussion continued

This post spurred some interesting discussion. Thanks for the comments, everyone. I am still a bit confused about worship. I liked many of the answers. Kevin seems to say that it is an act of respect? Maybe? That we practice worship, regardless of how we feel about ourselves or God at the time. Anonymous also suggests that it is an act that causes us to focus away from ourselves.

GirlGrace, Kathy and JoeG seemed to say that worship is something you experience--kind of that connection to the creator? I am probably misstating your beliefs here, but that is kind of what I heard. I liked Kathy's statement that it "bypasses the reasoning part of the mind and stops where wonder is born." JoeG suggested that it was something that transforms your own life and actually changes how you live. GirlGrace argued that worship is the demonstration God's love toward other people.

Very interesting and, again, I apologize if I misstated anyone's thoughts. Feel free to correct me. I am still unsure what form it takes, but think these are some good places to start. Like GirlGrace, I have experienced something like this outside the church setting, but as Kevin noted, I have found great meaning in church ritual.

I like all of these. Like I said myself in the comments, the one thing I distrust about the word is involved in things like "praise and worship" that, in my mind, manipulate the emotional state of people with music. I have been to enough concerts and even political rallies to know how easy that emotional state can be to create. It isn't a bad thing, mind you, but not necessarily something I would call worship.

I really liked one of GirlGrace's comments on the idea that God doesn't need to be told how great he is. Reminded me of this post from Micah McCarty on the subject.

"But one of the things that he said in the interview really stuck with me. I have had this problem with the whole worship movement of the past several years. I tend to think it is rather shallow and self-serving. Father Boyle seems to feel the same way. He was talking about how we are always singing songs about how good God is and how kind or forgiving or caring, etc. Father Boyle thinks Jesus just looks at us and laughs because He would rather us just be good ourselves and kind and forgiving and caring instead of singing about how He personifies those characteristics.

Therein lies my main problem with the whole worship movement thing. Doesn't it make sense that we are supposed to DO and BE these things instead of singing about how God does them or IS them? That seems to me to be the point of spiritual formation, you know, the whole becoming like Christ thing. But so often we are satisfied with just telling God that we recognize his goodness without ever letting his goodness transform us into being good ourselves. Maybe I'm crazy. I definitely don't think this is a popular idea in most current evangelical circles."