“What do we do when we don’t ‘feel it’?

We’re all human.  Often we’re fine, but sometimes we get down.  Sometimes we get upset.  Sometimes we have doubt.  Sometimes we’re tired.  Other times we just feel plain lousy.  I made a comment to our worship pastor last week that the band was rockin’ and I was really “feeling it” in worship for the past couple of weeks.  Does that mean if I don’t feel anything that worship was bad?

That lead me to another epiphany.  Worship being good or bad is really only determined by one factor:  Our amount of personal surrender to the will of God. I shouldn’t be there to feel anything.  It’s not about a feeling.  It’s about putting aside our own feelings and honoring God through service and worship.  In fact, I wonder if God honors our worship even more if we suck it up, go, worship, and serve especially when we don’t feel like it.

I’m reminded of Abraham.  He was asked by God to sacrifice his own son,–not merely give him up, but to literally sacrifice him–his only legitimate son, promised by God, and miraculously delivered by a barren wife.  I’m pretty sure Abraham didn’t feel like serving God that day.  But he was willing anyway, and God honored his setting aside of his own feelings.

Then there’s Job.  Job lost everything he had, everyone he loved, and even his own health.  Yet he honored the very God who allowed it all to happen.  (How many times have we not wanted to serve when we feel like God has turned away from our plight?)  Yet Job, no matter how it made him feel, served and worshiped anyway.  God honored that worship by restoring him to his former state, then increasing it tenfold.

And, above all, there’s Jesus.  He knew the road ahead of him.  He knew he would be brutally tortured.  He knew he would bear the consequences of actions he didn’t deserve.  He knew he would die a criminal’s death as a sinless man.  That tells me it’s not a sin to “not feel like it”, as Jesus prayed that he would be spared the bitterness of his calling.  He didn’t feel like suffering and dying.  Still, he put his own feelings aside and said, “Whatever you want, Father.”

So, this week, your worship service may be like Pentecost, or it may just be the still, small voice.  Either way, worship isn’t about the goosebumps we get from a song, it’s about how we get over ourselves, surrender, and serve…even when we don’t feel like it.

Share your thoughts with us.  Do you ever not “feel it”?  What do you do?

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