Worship vs Personal Glory

One of the great longings of the heart is to worship. And within this longing is the center of our role as God’s icons. In other words, our created tendency toward worship serves as our life’s compass.

Worship has been defined by God as something that must be directed toward Him alone. Yet within this longing we are constantly tugged and pulled in different directions…directions that clearly contradict the essence of worship. Instead of directing our worship toward God, the tugs and pulls we succumb to have us chasing whims of personal glory. In the athletic world this is more noticeably the case. Many wrestlers, for instance, can’t help but find themselves chasing personal glory via accolades; or their devotion becomes worship of the sport itself as opposed to worship toward the God who provided them the ability to step on the mat in the first place.

Remember that icons point in the direction of God. They are in contrast to idols, which merely absorb worship unto themselves. We were created to be God’s icons. And if we are not living as such, then our spiritual bent toward worship still searches for fulfillment. Hence, we begin to idolize the sport, the famed competitors of the sport, or even ourselves as we strive for greatness.

Jesus, as the face of the Creator, was very much aware of this bent within the human spirit. That is why He said worship must not only be in spirit, but also in truth. Worship alone cannot justify itself. It needs the constraints of truth; and that truth is the person and character of God.

The great Archbishop William Temple described worship as “The submission of all of our nature to God…the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose. All this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of all expressions of which we are capable.” This is worship. And it is accomplished in the athletic arena as much as it is within the doors of a church.

The main point of emphasis is this: the thirst for worship is not so much a religious thing as it is a human thing. It pervades time, context, and culture. It is inextricably found among the young and the old, the educated and the uneducated, the athletic and the unathletic. Therefore, the issue is not related to its existence but to its orientation. Just like a mirror reflects the light of the sun, so are we to reflect the glorious light of God.

This isn’t a momentary adjustment, either. Correctly orienting our worship toward God is a daily task; because the fight within the human self to absorb worship or to find other sources of worship is constant. It’s a part of our sinful nature. A person who makes an intellectual decision that God does not exist, or that God will not receive attention from them, cannot terminate their bent toward worship. It’s a part of them. So if God is not the focus of their worship, then something else will be, even if it’s themselves. And while this is true for anyone, it’s sometimes easier to identify in the athletic arena. Wrestlers – especially when successful – often have a hard time with this. They’re ambitious, self-motivated, and the sport is powerfully individual at its core. So it’s a struggle in its own to dismiss the fleeting pleasure of personal glory. And even though the pleasure (or fulfillment) never fully satisfies, it nevertheless caresses the wrestler just enough for them to hunger for more. And that’s what they’re ultimately left with: hunger…insatiable hunger. It’s insatiable because such hunger can only find satisfaction when it is consumed by the glory of God. Simply put, worship in any direction apart from God leaves us deprived and wanting. Popular theologian, Ravi Zacharias, said it best: “The world of personal glory moves from triumph to emptiness because it can never deliver fulfillment of the spirit. We refuse to admit that the sheer winning of accolades cannot deliver what we say it will.”

In addition to the obvious struggle of absorbing worship or personal glory is the aforementioned tendency to position our worship toward other things. This has always been a struggle in tandem with personal glory. However, it seems to be more prominent in today’s highly advanced and technological world. We have so much at our disposal, and even more inundated via television and internet. In short, the distractions and appeals for our attention are plenty. If we don’t get a handle on them, we will find ourselves lost. Sometimes we have to fight through the clutter in order to reposition our lives and our worship toward the Creator.

Thankfully, we’re not alone; for while God is the intended source of our worship, He is also the guide. He is with us every step of the way, persistently working on our hearts and minds to stay the course, to keep our eyes set on Him. His prevenient grace draws us forward.

(The above is a sample from a chapter in Icon: The Value of Faith and Wrestling. To read the rest of the chapter, check out the book)