Worship?

(I really like this picture. To me this says worship. Just look at their faces! They look so moved...)
The question on my mind today:

"What is Worship?"

The Dictionary says:

–noun

1.

reverent honor and homage paid to god or a sacredpersonage, or to any object regarded as sacred.

2.

formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage:They attended worship this morning.

3.

adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of businesssuccess.

4.

the object of adoring reverence or regard.

Or,

a feeling of profound love and admiration

Almost two years ago now I choreographed and performed a worship dance for my church to the song "My Redeemer Lives". My mom and I began preparing more songs with other women from my church, about one dance a month. On Sunday mornings I dance in the front and a little to the side of the congregation while my mom pushes a handicapped boy named Jesse in his wheelchair.

Dancing on during Sunday worship service was a struggle for me, still is. The idea of dancing from the heart, not thinking it out and choreographing it first, intimidated me. I've always been a people pleaser, so truly letting go and dancing while an entire congregation of people watched me? Terrifying. Still, I dance.

For several months now, I've felt so awkward and uncomfortable dancing. When I examine my heart attitude and reasons for dancing, they aren't what I'd hoped for. When I was forming my first dance, it wasn't because I expected to perform it for my church. It was because I felt moved to dance for God, I wanted to seek him and glorify him through song and movement. I wanted to worship him, alone in my basement. My heart was in the right place.

The reason why I dance for my church, I've come to see, wasn't as much to please God as it was to please my mom. I wanted to meet her expectations, make her proud by dancing during church. I said it was for God, yet now I question if that was(is) my truest motivation?

So what do I do? Do I stop dancing, take a break to meditate on God and try to return to the true heart of worship?

Am I truly worshiping?

Confused,

~Hannah Hoo

Thursday, oh Thursday.

Feel. Exhausted. My. Fingers. Barely. Can. Press. The. Keys.

So. Sleepyyyyyyksdddddddddddd-(SNORE!)

Sweet Dreams,

~Hannah Hoo

...and the greatest of these is Love."

Today, I am preocupied with love.

No, not my love life, just the general subject of love. Think about it. Love, it appears, is the most powerful of all emotions. Love is the subject of everyother song on the radio. Millions of books are written on love. Teenagers seem desperate for their true love, grandmothers reminice over past love. It sparks other emotions. God, in the bible, says this about love:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God's love is far more infinite than our understanding: enough to speak everything into being just for us, who gave both his only son and his life just for us, was motivated by love? Yes, that certainly puts love up there in the list of top emotions.

So tell me what you think: Is love the most powerful emotion? Or a different emotion? Comment and let me know.

Buttercups,

~Hannah Hoo

(I love The Princess Bride! )