Soup's On!

Mom used to call us to supper with those words.  That didn’t mean we were having soup, it just meant that it was time to eat.

A friend recently told me about attending a large Christian gathering of men with two of his friends.  One was ultra-conservative and restrained in his outward expressions of worship.  The other was from a different heritage (and personality type) and was much more visibly demonstrative.

Because they were friends, they had a good-natured banter back and forth about their differences.  The more expressive friend encouraged the other to loosen up and be more “free” in his demonstration of his devotion to God.  His friend answered, “Just because I’m not slurping loud doesn’t mean my soup doesn’t taste good.” 

Imagine sitting in a restaurant and hearing from your dining companions: “Slurp louder!  Don’t you like the soup?”  Or, “The way you eat soup is to slowly take a small portion and hold it in your mouth for 10 seconds while you savor all the different ingredients.  Don’t disrespect the soup by slurping!”

For crying out loud … it’s soup!  The purpose of soup is to eat it and enjoy it.  With all due respect to Miss Manners, the proper way to eat soup is the way you enjoy eating soup.

And the proper way to worship is to set your mind’s attention and your heart’s affection on the One who made you and who loves you and to acknowledge His unsurpassed worth (our English word “worship” comes from an old English word “worth-ship”). What matters is not what it looks like on the outside, but the focus of your mind and heart.

I am reminded of the truth of 1 Samuel 16:7, “The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We can get so hung up on what things look like on the outside that we miss the deepest realities.  The truth of the matter is that I can’t see what is going on in someone’s heart. And the way I know whether or not a person has truly connected with God in worship is not by observing their outward expressions of worship during the gathering, but by how their devotion to Christ is lived out for the rest of the week.

Our lives matter so much to God that He wants us to experience the reality of His presence as much in the check-out line at Wal-mart on Tuesday as in the pew on Sunday.  And just like a good meal provides us with nutrition for living physically, our times of worship (both public and private) provide us with nutrition for living spiritually.

Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”  It’s not HOW you eat, but WHAT you eat that determines your health.

So slurp … or savor.  Just don’t miss the meal.