My running playlist is filled with some of my favorite worship-while-I-run songs… and those songs had been penetrating my mind and heart for the last 20 minutes or so. But when I sat back and let the cool sand filter through my fingers, I sensed that I was missing something. When I pulled out one of my earbuds, I knew.

I had been missing the music by listening to my own. The seagulls talking, the waves crashing against themselves, the water trickling into the inlet with the tide, a family yelling to each other across the tidepools that someone needed to go potty.

It was all part of the artwork.

So I pulled out the other earbud and my worship heart was swept away. For a little while, any thoughts of my personal worship heart language or what I like about certain types of music drifted away. In fact, my thoughts of anything to do with our human concept of music disappeared. I was caught up in a moment of true personal worship.

Worship doesn’t just happen when I’m singing and playing my guitar. It doesn’t just happen when I’m in front of people. It doesn’t just happen when a certain song hits me the “right” way.

Worship happens better when God sings to me… when I get it… and when I join in His song with Him. When I take out my man-made plastic earbuds and listen to real life.

When everything we do becomes a moment to worship Him with His music, then it’s a 2-way conversation. And only then do we really understand the relationship and the purpose behind worship.

Opportunities are all around us… We’ve just got to listen. 

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