Follow the example of the Wise Men this Christ. Matthew 2:2 give a clear purpose for why they traveled over 900 miles from the East to Jerusalem, “We have come to worship Him who has been born King of the Jews.” Christ was the object of their worship.
God created us with the capacity to worship. The issue is not if we worship but who, what, and how we worship.
When someone spends all his or her time and money on golf, boating, fishing, sex, gambling, watching television, surfing the internet, or ranting about politics, he or she is making a sacrifice. The alcoholic worships the bottle, the drug addict worships the high, the codependent person worships his or her relationship partner, the greedy person worships money, the control freak worships being in charge, and the helicopter parent worships his or her kid.
The novelist David Foster Wallace, not long before taking his life, spoke these words to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College: “Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship…is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough…Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you…Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”
David Wallace was not a Christian, but he understood worship. Learn a lesson from the Wise Men. Set your focus on worshiping Christ.
Merry Christmas!
