Heart Tracks - Surrendering The Dream

37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. Luke 7:37-38....."Then I threw the dream into the sea. Maybe it will rise again." Lyric from "What Is This Thing Called Love" by Delirious..."The greatest act of worship can be to put our dreams to death in order to embrace God's plan." Sheila Walsh

There is a great deal of discussion, sharing of ideas, definitions of, and yes, controversy over what constitutes worship in the Church. Most of it seems to be centered on style. I wonder how much of what we call worship looks anything like that of the woman at Christ's feet? What element of sacrifice goes into our "worship" of Him? Would we "pour out" unto Him even that which we hold most precious?

Tradition has it that it was Mary Magdalene, a prostitute, who poured out the perfume upon the head and feet of Jesus. That perfume was believed to have had worth to the point of being able to care for a number of people for a long time, not to mention the standard of life it could have provided Mary. The cost and value of the perfume meant nothing to her when compared to her desire to simply love and worship Him. The Bible tells us that He had cast numerous demons out of her previous to this, and her ministry to Him here is her act of worship in her gratitude and love for Him. She let what the world called precious go, in order to embrace the One who was, is Precious beyond words. To what degree are we willing to do the same?

It may be that there is nothing more precious to us than our dreams. Dreams for ourselves, our children and loved ones. Dreams even of what we want to do for Him in His Kingdom. Many of the dreams can be selfish, benefiting us more than anyone else, but many are not at all. They're sincere dreams with which we want to honor and glorify Him. They're truly acts of worship. Yet, can we come to a place in worship where we can surrender to Him even the most precious and pure dream, and leave it there, at His cross? As the lyric says, maybe it will rise again, but whether it does or does not, we leave it there, at His feet, in worship. In trust. We surrender our dream in order to embrace His dream, desire, and plan for us. This is worship, where all of our dreams are surrendered to Him, trusting that His dream for us is greater...even if the unfolding of it seems to be anything but that for us. Before His dream for us may live, every dream of ours must be yielded to Him. We have to be willing to let them die, trusting that all of them fall short of His desire, plan, dream, for us.

It's easy to fall into the trap of worshiping our dreams, even our most pure ones, instead of Him. To worship Him "in spirit and in truth," means we give them all to Him, even if it means the loss of them all, in order that we might have Him in all His fullness. The dreams may die, or He may raise them up, but whatever path He takes us on, it is His path, His dream, and His desire for us coming to pass. The less precious has been yielded for He who is most precious. That's true worship. Is it what marks our worship?

Blessings,
Pastor O