I WANT TO WOW GOD!
Valerie Rae Hanneman
June 18, 2004
Psalm 98:4 “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a
loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise” (KJV)
Psalm 100:2 “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence
with singing” (KJV)
I love “religious” words. Words like omnipresent, omniscient, and
omnipotent. I love the way that they roll off your tongue and make you
sound so smart. I can even tell you what they mean (sort of). However,
my most favorite religious word is really simple and I know exactly what
it means (for me anyway). The word is “WOW!” and (for me) it means
Wide Open Worship!
I remember one of my first WOW! experiences. It was when I was a
counselor up at Camp Sugarpine. There was a woman who was very expressive
with her hands as we would sing. I watched her out of the corner of my
eye because I was not used to seeing someone raise their hands to God.
I will admit, I was a little critical of her. Why was she doing that?
Was she a showoff? Didn’t she care that people were looking at her
funny? I was curious about her (curious being the politically correct
word for snoopy) and so I started talking to her - getting to know her -
trying to understand her. I discovered a woman who tried to live her
life in wide open worship of God - who held nothing back from God. She
was the first to start me on my life-lessons about worshiping God.
My most recent WOW! experience came at last month’s Third Day concert.
I love Third Day. I love their WOW! music and from what I know about
the band - their lives back up the WOW of their music. I was really
excited about seeing them in concert - but there was a bit of a drawback.
Toby Mac was their opening act. Toby Mac is a Christian rap artist. I
don’t like rap. It is too loud and I can’t understand what they are
saying. But I would put up with having to listen to that horrible
“Christian rap” if it meant worshiping with Third Day. Toby Mac was
everything I feared he would be. His music was so loud I could feel my insides
jumping to the beat of his drums. I didn’t like it, I couldn’t
understand it and I couldn’t hardly wait for him to get off the stage so some
“real” Christian music could be enjoyed. All of a sudden Toby Mac and
his back-up group hit their knees, raised their hands to God, and
shouted out “I’m Yours!” I may not have understood most of what th!
ey were saying - but I understood that! That was WOW! In that moment
of recognition I let go of all my preconceived notions and prejudices
against Christian rap and I really listened to what the music was
saying. Although the worship style was something I was not familiar with -
the worship was the same and it was all directed towards God.
Worship is just as unique as every person is. My worship style is not
the same as yours. Your worship style is not the same as mine. But
our worship is the same - it is all directed towards God. That is the
bottom line of worship - it is directed towards God and gives us the
opportunity to pour out our love for Him in a style that is uniquely ours.
Does this mean that I have to make your style of worship my style of
worship? No, not at all. God is so big - so HUGE - that our finite
minds cannot even begin to grasp Him. He is enthroned on our praises and
He delights in all our various and individual styles of worship. And I
don’t think He wants my worship to be a copy-cat of yours.
What it does mean is that I cannot say - or believe - that because your
style of worship is not the same as my style of worship your style of
worship is not “real” worship. That is a big problem in God’s Church
these days - the divisions over worship styles. Praise choruses have too
much drums and guitar - it’s not real worship. Hymns are hundreds of
years old - it is not relevant worship. She puts her hands up in the air
too much - that is show-off worship. He stands there like a stick - he
doesn’t feel the worship. She is practically dancing - that is
irreverent worship. He isn’t singing - that isn’t worshiping.
From the very first offerings and worship by Cain and Abel, God has
been perfectly capable of determining what is acceptable worship. To put
it bluntly - who am I to decide on God’s behalf what is or isn’t
worship? Am I so foolish as to try to fit God into the box of what I believe
worship is? Oh no, no, no, no, no! God would not stay in the box the
Pharisee’s tried to put Him in, on resurrection morning He would not
stay in the box satan tried to keep Him in and He will not stay in the
box that I try to put Him in. From a hand-raising woman at Camp
Sugarpine to Toby Mac on his knees, God has patiently ( and unfortunately -
repeatedly) taught me that He and He alone determines what is “real”
worship.
God doesn’t look at the music style, He doesn’t look at body movements
or hand positions. He doesn’t care about the quality or the quantity
of the singing. He is looking for the heart of worship. He is looking
for WOW! Worship that is not held down or held back by anybody else’s
ideas but is the wide open expression of our love for Him.
I am drawn to WOW! I love it in my music - which is why I have such an
eclectic collection of CD’s. I have instrumental hymns, reggae gospel,
Third Day, Celtic Praise, A capella Worship, Skillet (alternative rock)
and yes, now I have a Toby Mac. I love WOW! in people. Those people
closest to me all have different worship styles - but they have the same
WOW! hearts. I love WOW! in ministry. I like being in ministry
positions that allow me to wide-open-worship God with my service.
I am drawn to WOW music, WOW people and WOW ministry because that is
what I want to be. I want to WOW God with every part of my life - what I
say, what I listen to, who I hang out with and what I do with my life.
Part of my WOW’ing God is to make sure that I do not try to limit
another person’s worship style by what I think of it - nor to allow another
to limit my worship style by what they think of it.
My God and King, I surrender all of me to You. My desire is for my
body, soul and spirit to be total WOW of You. Help me to tame my mind and
my tongue so that nothing I ever say or do limits another person’s
worship of You. Remind me as often as necessary that You determine what is
real worship - not me.
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Contact Valerie at valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at June 27, 2004 02:55 PM