Defiant Worship

Sunday was a really heavy, emotional day for me, and at the top of the list of reasons was the tragedy in Vancouver on Saturday night. As I’d imagine was true for most of you, it hit really hard. It’s one thing to read about things happening on the other side of the world among people you have little connection with. But when something like that happens 20 minutes away, and you have family and friends who were there- the evil that exists in the world comes home in a different way. 

My wife grew up in that area and we were at her parents home for a family gathering on Sunday afternoon. Because of the heaviness I was feeling, I quietly left after dinner and went for a walk on my own. I found myself heading towards where the festival had taken place on Fraser Street, where a number of other people were gathered, leaving flowers and candles on the street corners. As I walked up Fraser, I passed a produce place with a huge Philippines flag hung on the storefront that had music playing on their speakers. The song that was playing as I passed was “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”. That hymn begins with these words:

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Doesn’t that seem like such a contradiction? Someone who plays that song after that kind of event might be called “tone deaf” by some in our culture. It’s different, of course, when the person playing that song is a member of the community that has just suffered so much. They know the pain of the world, but they also hold to the Lord’s faithfulness and compassion in the midst of it.

That’s what occurred to me on Sunday morning as we worshipped: worship is many things, but one of the aspects we might not give a lot of thought to is that it is an act of defiance. Worship is us looking at the world in all its twistedness and depravity and saying “YET…”. Yet God is good. Yet God is faithful. Yet God is compassionate. Yet God is working to accomplish His purposes. It is true that there is much darkness in the world. Yet it is also true that God IS, and that God is GOOD, and that the Lord is returning to wipe every tear from the eyes of His people.

Worship is an intentional act, whether you feel like it or not. It is a defiant decision to stand on the truth when all the world is shaking around you. May we be a people characterized by worship in every season and circumstance.