Last week I sat at the piano in our house and sang I Belong to Jesus by Brooke Ligertwood. I’d heard it a few times but this time I was actually paying attention to the words.

“On the day I chose to trust in Him,
When I turned from death to life.
He was waiting with a robe and ring
And now I can testify, I belong…”

It’s a powerful allusion to the prodigal son and all of a sudden I’m struggling to get the words out and there are tears on my cheeks. It’s happening again as I write this. I’m not good on the piano and I don’t have the best voice. But in the simplicity of this song in my living room, I encountered Jesus.

When we think about personal disciplines, we default to reading the Bible and prayer. They’re Christianity’s answer to salt and pepper; nobody ever really questions their priority. Worship is often relegated to singing songs in church on Sunday or talked about as the way we do our whole lives. But as I find myself encountering the Lord in a place of private adoration, I wonder if there’s a case to be made for promoting it alongside Scripture and prayer as vital spiritual habits.

Last year I read Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith and I’d highly recommend it. His premise is that we are a people formed not primarily by information but by what we love. Think about a shopping mall. Stores don’t hand out catalogues of information about products. Rather they show aspirational photos of sleek products or models wearing the clothes. It appeals to desire and has a deeper and more formational impact. We are all worshippers shaped by what we love.

As churches, we’ve tried to counter this by assuming that if we just knew enough about the Bible, we’ll be fine and I’m not sure it’s true. I’m a huge advocate for Scripture but I’m also a huge advocate for worship. You see, it’s in worship that what we love is re-oriented towards the one truly worthy of adoration. Worship recalibrates what we love and therefore changes us.

So can I encourage you to consider how and when you can make time to worship. I love to worship on my morning prayer walks or listen to worship music in our home. But it doesn’t have to be musical. Worship can simply be something we do with our words in prayer. Maybe you want to take a great passage of Scripture like Colossians 1:15-20 or Revelation 1:12-16 and read one every day until you know it by heart. You’ll be amazed at how much something like that gets in your head and heart in everyday life such that any moment can become a moment of encounter.

Let’s be a people who create the space for God to shape what we love.

Much love,
Simon

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Everyday Encounters