What’s the point of it all...?

Commitment, a rare virtue it seems, matters more than you might think, not simply the ability to commit to (and here you fill in the blank), but the focus and direction of our commitment matters.  Why?

With the same power that an addiction grips people with, whatever it is that captures your imagination, captivates your heart & soul, fuels your creativity, consumes your mind, drives your hopes, dreams and ambitions is your master, ruler, and king.  What we commit to matters, the clock is is ticking and life is short, so we need to harness our commitments where they count.

For all practical purposes, your accepted responsibilities are your reasons for your existence. What we are passionate about motivates us, energizes us, gets our feet out of bed in the morning, and we will willingly sacrifice our time & effort for it.  It is in the deepest sense, what we submit ourselves to, where we feel obligated, what draws our duty freely from within has won us over and holds ownership over us.

In other words, whatever it is that captures us completely is our god/God.

It’s possible to be more interested in the idea of God than God Himself.  Yes we like the notion of blessings and heavenly realms, but we aren’t exactly excited about personal transformation or taking risks for God.  We think about God once or twice a week, typically on Sunday, and then we pursue what we want.  Is that commitment?  

I'm all for gathering as the church, but sometimes church is more about preferences and church-politics.  Corporate worship assemblies we call "church" can easily miss the point.  Many people are infatuated with projects, performances, and presentations and then they wonder why they feel disconnected from God.  

Where you place your trust is what or who you worship.  Most people appear to be more interested in being spectators in a big production they tag with the label “worship” than they are interested in being in the presence of the Almighty.  The lightshow and performance are like scaffolding, and God is the House, but we settle for erecting the scaffolding without ever dreaming about entering in the House.  

How do we know the real focus of our worship?  Whatever moves you the most is what you truly worship.  Say whatever you want, but what we obsess over and allow to captivate our imagination and what are motivated by is the source of what our heart desires and thus the object of our worship.

Should worship be enjoyable, exciting, and meaningful?  I certainly hope so, but the focus of worship shouldn't be personal motivation or what we "get out of it."  The enjoyment is a byproduct, not the main point of worship.  

You are either an implement or an impediment, you are either in the way or on the way, we either lead people to God or we interfere by misguiding their focus on the trivial.  What we win people with is what we win them to, either a gimmicky production or the Glorified Person of Jesus.  Would you still "go" to church if it was only about Jesus and nothing else?  Could you worship without all the entourage and pageantry?  Worship should be about God, simple and direct.