I just finished doing my devotions, but are they ever done? I was praying and I had a vision and some thoughts I wanted to share.
This past year has been one of major disillusionment and selfishness. As in the last 4 or more months I have started to seek God for me and no one else I have felt like I couldn’t find Him. All the places I told people to look I was looking and couldn’t find Him. So as I was praying I had this vision of myself walking through a church with a big altar and pulpit area, with high ceilings and a balcony. As I walked through the doors I was faced with great anticipation on what I would find inside. As I cleared the balcony I had this sense of awe as I saw everyone worshiping with hands raised as a band played and a pastor spoke. As they were worshiping I started looking at the people and seeing them intently looking at the front of the church. As I turned my head to look upon what they were so transfixed on I couldn’t see anything but the pastor and band playing. As I continued to walk the aisle which seemed to extend to eternity I kept looking around with desperation searching for what all these people could see and I could not. As I continued to walk the realization that no one could see me became real. As I desperately cried out trying to see what so many were seeing and trying to get them to show me, no one acknowledged my presence. They were fixated without fail on whatever it was they were staring at. As I was seeing this a feeling of loneliness swept over my soul as I realized this is truly how I felt. A stranger in the house of GOD searching so tenaciously for the master of the house. I began to weep at the idea that myself and others could actually be inside of the house of God and not find Him. Just the traditions, meticulous planned order of service and time schedule some churches have been reduced to. But, as I even sit here to write this a realization washes over me that the very person I was looking for in that massive and ornate cathedral was the very one who opened the door and let me in. As I am formulating these thoughts I realize that for some me included churches have become caves. Dark places where we feel there is nothing to do but either sit down and pout or go stumbling through the dark. Then I began to think about David. After his own flesh and blood ran him out of his own kingdom as a result of his own transgressions. He ended up in a cave with whiney men. I just began to think about where I’m at. I’m definitely in the cave. But what am I doing in the cave. See David sat in that cave and worshiped God with everything that was left within him. As he worshiped God showed up and showed him the way out of the cave. David could have said these guys that are whining and sniveling are right, this sucks. But instead he stayed intently focused on worshiping God so much so that he did not even become faded by the complaints of the people who surrounded him. I realize that each one of those people that filled that massive church had to walk through the cave created by the overlapping balcony and as they began to worship through the cave they entered the auditorium and were so intently focused on worship that a huge white guy walking the aisles whining that he could not see, was not enough to take there focus off worshiping the one who took them out of the cave.
I guess you could read this and think that you’ve heard it a million times, worship through the hard times. But, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about worshipping yourself out of your cave. To do that you must accept the fact you are in a cave, you don’t know when your getting out and you cant get out on your own. Acceptance is the first step to CAVE WORSHIP. Why I wrote this I do not know, but if you are like me and sitting in the oppressive darkness of a cave life. ITS TIME TO WORSHIP!