Friends have sometimes asked me 'where I go' when I'm worshiping God. They can tell I'm 'not really there' anymore. It's why I have difficulty worshiping with my eyes open. It's so much easier for me to connect with ADONAI that way. I know fellow worshipers who close their eyes and stop singing during the musical part of worship so they can just get lost in God's presence. Trying to sing sometimes actually distracts them.
Since I was small, God has given me the gift of remembering both music and lyrics (unfortunately I also remember nearly all the commercial jingles, too). So I usually don't have to stop singing when I close my eyes. It's a blessing to be able to leave earth (or at least stand on my tiptoes) during this time.
Lately my mission in churches has been to give people an opportunity to be silent in the midst of quiet music that fosters intimacy with God. To be drawn to and into His Presence. There are usually very few, if any, moments like this in most church services. Personally, I would rather spend the majority of my time there, alongside other worshipers in the Body, yet communing very personally with the One Who loves me--and all of us--best. God 'dwells in the praises of His people,' so worshiping corporately in this way offers us a much more powerful experience of His Person than even our daily, private devotional time usually provides.
Chaim Bentorah, in his analysis of the word for worship in Hebrew--shachah--says that though it is appropriately translated 'to bow down,' if you look at the Hebrew letters which comprise it, you discover that it includes something rather like 'swimming' in God. "Any time God has your full attention, He can surround you with His Presence and love, just as water surrounds you when you are swimming." If you add the last component letter, you add the 'breath of God'. "Hence, worship is any act that joins man with God into a completeness surrounded by the presence of the Spirit of God." This is also why, Scripture says, God is jealous for us. He does not want anyone or anything else to supplant Him in this intimate worship relationship, one of dedicated and all-encompassing Racham**.
I like the idea of swimming. Not the strenuous kind, in which I have to to struggle. But rather the floating kind. Or doing the backstroke, looking up at the clouds, which are also swimming in that deep blue sky above me. Where my peripheral vision can no longer see the land. Or diving underwater and jetting through beneath the surface, exhilarated by the rush of water flowing past me.
Parents teach their children to swim in different ways. I'm thankful mine didn't just dump me in, using the sink or swim method. In fact, my dad was sometimes a lifeguard between academic school years. He taught me to float by holding me up with his hand underneath my back, until I was able to float on my own. Hmmmm... interesting thought, when I consider friends' concerns that they don't know how to swim (in worship, that is). I realize now that abandoning myself to Him without fear, trusting that His hand was underneath my back, was how I learned.
*Hebrew Word Study: Revealing the Heart of God
**See post entitled Ravished
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