What Do You Worship?

In the Bible, we are told that while Moses had ascended Mount Sinai so that God could fashion the Ten Commandments onto stone tablets, the chosen people of Israel below grew impatient for something to worship. Thus, in lieu of the God of their deliverance, they fashioned a huge calf of gold and began to worship this idol. 

As you are most likely aware, this did not sit well with either God or Moses upon his return and the stone tablets were dashed to bits on the rocks below. The people of Israel were left to do penance as Moses went about reproducing God’s sacred instructions. So that raises the question: In our personal lives and spiritual evolution, “What is it that we worship?” 

We all have things, people, and experiences that we often hold up as our gold standard and seek to pay homage to. Worship is that feeling or expression of adoration and reverence for the items or deities that we deem most worthy…the most valued…the most celebrated. Who or what we worship is a very strong and revealing indicator of our personal character and where we place our priorities in life. 

Worship can take on many forms which often include spoken or written verse, mindful prayer, and songs of praise. Worship can also include actions or service that brings into focus what we choose to recognize as a strong motivating factor in our lives. We most often associate the term worship with some identified Supreme Being or power…God. Worship gives us an opportunity and platform to give thanks and shine the spotlight on what it might be in this life that we treasure and trust the most. 

Worship arises from our individual values and our willingness to perform gracious and conscious acts of the will.  There are moments in our lives that the objects of our adoration slip from love, peace, and harmony of the God of the Universe to those things in the material world that we raise up as the source of our personal happiness and fulfillment. We lose track of our connection with the true source and elevate money, jobs, social status, and power as our deity of choice. We create our own golden calf. 

Worship brings into focus our targeted thanksgiving and our recognition of the source of our blessings in life. Unfortunately, we all at some point in time lose our way and move our spiritual, mental, and conscious thoughts and words towards a more self-centered form of worship. We fall into the trap of believing that we have been the sole creator of our good fortune or the demon of our probems, rather than recognizing the co-creative process that we share with God and the Divine Order of the Universe. 

What we choose to worship reveals what we have designated as our God. When fame and fortune become the primary focus of our lives above love, kindness, and oneness with all of creation, we have slid off the road of mindful living and into the ditch of self-worship and personal adoration. We push God aside, puff out our chest in ego-centric pride while the truth remains that we don’t even know what we don’t know about life. 

Worship requires time, attention, and an overlying sense of praise and gratitude.  It also requires an acknowledgment of our source. The dilemma often comes when we move our focus from the infinite abundance of God and the Universe to the misplaced notion that we are the lone architects of our own success and existence. God’s love is omnipresent and, in all things, matter, time, and space. 

It is impossible to find a place where God isn’t present. We are the ones that move our consciousness and pride away from God as our source to a fictitious and fraudulent reliance on our own perceived wisdom and talent. 

These self-center, self-reliant acts of self-worship often require us to be mired in years of unnecessary penance, much like the Israelites in Moses’ time. 

When this self-adoration surpasses our devotion and intention to co-create our lives with God, then we lose the connection that is our true lifeline to happiness and fulfillment. It is the focus of our worship that determines the God of our consciousness. If we fixate our thoughts, dreams and actions on money, fame, and power, then those things, created by our own EGO, become our God…the objects of our worship. 

By no means am I implying that striving to be the best at your job or making a great income and establishing a comfortable life is wrong. It is when these “golden idols” of the material world become the central focus of our life that we lose the spiritual muscle and conscious will to work daily with the oneness of the world, the love of God, and the creative power of the Universe. It is when we choose to worship the creation rather than the Divine creator that we risk the most important and meaningful relationship of our human experience. 

Many think that God’s blessings are only evident in material things…a higher paying job…a larger house…a fancier car.  It is in quieting our minds and opening our heart and soul that we can truly worship the one source and count the life blessings that Divine love has graciously bestowed upon us. 

Fred Clausen 

Fred’s latest book is The Divine Order of Our Random Life: A Collection of Teachable Moments and Human Observation. He is also the author of The Fork in the Road Leads Home: Reflections From My Life's Journeys...A Collection of Essays and The Essential Elements of Successful Coaching