Having a laugh at my own expense

31st May 2008
Depending on who you believe, there are between 70 million to 112 million blogs in existence around the world today. So why am I starting a new one, you may reasonably ask? Will this one lone voice be heard above the din of all those other blogs clamouring for your attention?

And I wasn’t particularly encouraged in my endeavour when I saw this T-shirt being advertised on despair.com. If this shirt is a sign of the future for me then it looks like I’m going to be in for a very humbling experience…

That would be no bad thing, of course. It does none of us very much harm to be taken down a peg or two every once in a while. Being able to laugh at myself reminds me that sometimes I am, if I’m honest, a bit on the ridiculous side. I take my opinions and point of view far too seriously sometimes and my sin no where near seriously enough. I’m quick to take pride in what I think I’ve achieved, while I displace God from his rightful place of honour at the heart of my life.

This is the essence of the failure of worship. It’s taking ourselves and our achievements far too seriously, priding ourselves in what we think we’ve accomplished, while we too easily push God aside, not taking him anywhere seriously enough.

Psalm 2 has some harsh words for those who think they’re a bit on the impressive side:

1 Why are the nations so angry?
Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
2 The kings of the earth prepare for battle;
the rulers plot together against the LORD
and against his anointed one.
3 “Let us break their chains,” they cry,
“and free ourselves from slavery to God.”

So they’re all lined up in their splendour, the powerful self-sufficient ones, the ones who think they are something. Facing off against God, they’re coming up to him fair and square – they’re going to show him who’s boss.

And how does God react?

4 But the one who rules in heaven laughs.
The Lord scoffs at them.

God laughs. He has a good chuckle at their pretensions. Let’s be clear - this is not laughing with them – this is clearly laughing at them, exposed as they are before him in their naked weakness. It turns out that we are not quite as impressive as we think we are. And, just in case we didn’t notice, it is the Ruler of heaven whose laughter is reminding us of this fact.

If failed worship displaces and opposes God, true worship gets us out of the centre of our lives and instead gets us to wrap our values and lives around God, the one true Object of all true worship. The essence of true worship is to realise that we are most definitely not all that, and to give our all to the One who most certainly is all that and much more. It wrestles us away from our obsession with ourselves and our own little dominions and encourages us to have a bit of a laugh at our pretensions every now and then.

So this website is about worship. But it's about a lot more than just a few activities we do when we gather each week. Sure, there are lots of practical training resources on this website, designed to help develop the giftings and abilities of our musicians and singers. But at the heart of all what we’re after is not just to be informed and equipped, but to be inspired – not by the meagre offerings in this site, but by glimpsing something more clearly and fully of the incomparable glory of God as revealed in Christ our Saviour and responding with the kind of worship that honours God through all we are and do.

Maybe only two of you will end up reading this blog, and I’ll end up having to laugh at the idea that anyone would be interested in reading my rambling thoughts. If that’s the case, it might just humble me enough to make me a better worshipper of God. But I pray that the resources on this site would help us all to glimpse a little bit more of who our God is and that, as a result, our lives would be increasingly shaped around him and lived worshipfully for his glory.

Alistair Hamill