Drowning and Worship: Theological Thursday!

I've almost drowned a couple times. Growing up my brothers and I loved to swim. My older brother was great, I was solid, my little brother was less than solid. When we all got together in a pool, all Hades always broke out.

What would start as innocent pushing and dunking inevitably led to water wrestling, holding each other under, and (without realizing it) nearly killing each other repeatedly.

I remember being under a chocker hold of my brother, head under the water, and realizing that I can't escape. I panicked. My arms flailed, my legs failed me, I was flopping in water like a fish out of water. The arms became heavy, tired fighting for the last bit of oxygen in my body. My eyes lost their vision, slowly turning black. My body would not last much longer, there was no more air in my lungs...

...and then my head came up out of the water. And I gasped the great joyous air around me. And I felt life spring into my body like knives, slicing my lungs, my heart, my muscle. Tissue hurt with joy. My eyes ached with the blinding light, my head throbbed with life giving oxygen!

And that is how worship should be. Worship is our bodies, our lives, response to the life giving breath of the Spirit of God in our lives. We were drowning in our sin. Our life ebbed away, and our fight slowly faded. Yet then God's Spirit breathes life into us, and it is shocking, painful, and joyous!

True worship is shocking! True worship causes pain and joy. True worship is desperate breathing in of God, accepting fully his life.

Let us worship desperately!