Feasting

I don't miss too many meals. Hardly ever. And I rarely miss the opportunity to snack, either. Last night, Rachel made brownies. Guess who was the first one to dig one out of the still-warm pan?

Meals sustain us. Meals nourish us. While we can go without food for a short time, over the long haul, we need food in order to keep going. We need nourishment. Our bodies can't go on without eating.

Just as food nourishes the body, worship nourishes the soul. And yet, while we rarely neglect the former, we often neglect the latter. Worship, the nourishment of the soul, often takes a back seat to "whatever else we might have going on." Yes, we can "snack" on devotional books and even blogs (!), but we were, to steal a phrase from Chris Tomlin, made for worship. "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee," said Saint Augustine. We were made for community, for sharing together in the reading of Scripture, for gathering around the communion table and the baptismal font, for focusing together on the One who made us, for being encouraged when we're struggling and for encouraging others when we're strong. Worship nourishes our soul just like a good meal nourishes our body. We need worship. And yet, how often do we "skip" what our spirits most need?

A couple of weeks ago, I was taken to what I consider to be a fancy restaurant. You know, one where the meal doesn't come wrapped in a paper covering and there is no lighted menu hanging overhead. And we had a great meal. The food was filling and tasty, and everything was put together in such a way that when we left, I felt fulfilled, not just physically. There was a sense of well-being that comes from such an experience.

The same thing is true of worship. Your pastors and worship leaders work each week to put together a worship experience that will fill each of us present—body, mind and spirit—that will enable us to better love God with heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. Some of us settle with listening to a podcast or watching a service on television, and while that may satisfy us to some extent, it's not the same as being part of a body of believers, worshipping together. I wonder if that's why, in the book of Revelation, the final celebration is described as a wedding feast—a feast! A meal! It's an experience that will satisfy us, fill us, because that's what worship (which is, we're told, what we will do forever) does.

We were made for worship. Worship is what nourishes our soul. So why do we insist on starving our spirits?