When you’re cut, you bleed. I bleed. We all bleed. And life cuts us. Sometimes it scratches us when a phone bill is off by a few dollars, and we’re frustrated that we must spend part of the currency we call “life” dealing with it. Sometimes life cuts us deep, and hard, and to the bone, like when a child is far from God, or we receive a halting doctor’s report. We are wounded. We are reeling. What comes out of us then?
Many years ago, my grandfather, as he was being rushed from his home in an ambulance, his heart failing him, lifted his frail arms, shaking, hands to the sky and said, “Jesus, I see you, I’m coming.” (Here is my radio story about my grandfather’s last moments.)
In his greatest crisis, his moment of truth, my grandfather bled worship. Death is the biggest challenge any of us will face. How he responded here, is how I want to respond in my greatest challenges, and my smallest (but no less significant) challenges.
I want to bleed worship. I want to bleed adoration, and thanksgiving, and love when I am cut, scratched, bruised, or harmed. I want to die like my grandfather – with worship in his heart and hope filling his eyes.
More than that, I want to live like my grandfather died, always aware that the moment I am in is part of a much bigger story, and even the mundane duties and conversations contain miracles if I will see them.
3 Reasons I Want To Bleed Worship
We want to bleed worship, I want to bleed worship, because:
1. My Life Began, And Will End, In The Presence Of God.
I’m not just doing the dishes today. I’m doing the dishes in the presence of God. I didn’t come into the world in a vacuum, and I won’t leave life as I know it in a vacuum. Neither will you.
2. My Spouse, Children, Family, And Friends Deserve The Legacy Of A Thankful Person.
I want to leave a legacy, an inheritance, all around me. The best inheritance I can leave is not money, furniture, land, or even a memoir. It is a thankful, worshipping life, that strengthens everyone around me, and inspires them to live the same.
3. My Days Are Short, Then I Will See His Face.
God grabbed my heart when I was in my late teens. I mean, He revealed Himself to me in my college dorm room, and I was His. Forever. Now I’m ending my 4th decade on the planet. Guys, it blows by very, very quickly. Worship feeds us. Worship is our only fitting response to the love of God that is pursuing us at this moment.
Today, when you and I are scratched, or cut, or wounded, let’s ask the Lord that we would bleed thanksgiving, praise, adoration, and worship. Not only will God be blessed by our offering of love, but we will be transformed in the process.
Lord, make us people who bleed worship.
+
Question: What words are you going to tell yourself today when a crisis happens? How will you create new habits?
Resource: The Essentials In Worship Video Course explores this idea in the “what is a worshipper?” section.