by Brett McCracken
Orient Your Heart
In an age where everyone clamors for stardom and Instagram likes, the church humbles us and weekly reminds us: this is not about you. This is about God. You are welcome here, you are wanted, your presence in the body is important. You are part of the story. But God is the star, not you.
A healthy church proclaims a message that is radically God-centered, not me-centered.
Upward, not inward. Redemption, not expression. These are just some of the radical alternatives the church offers our me-centered age. In a world that is constantly on the move, church worship forces us to be still. In a “quick to speak” world that is deafeningly loud, church worship allows us to sit quietly and listen, basking in God’s word preached and his wisdom imparted. In a world where we spend way too much time talking about ourselves—on social media, blogs, YouTube, and so forth—church worship allows us to talk about God and to God. We sing of his attributes, his love and mercy toward us. We declare it in liturgy, creeds, and prayers. We are shaped by his story, in Bible readings, preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, confession, singing together, and other regular rituals.
Wisdom isn’t just about concepts. It’s about the orientations of our time and energy, the postures that shape our hearts, often on subconscious levels.
Habits and Rhythms
The church helps habituate us to these crucial counter-formational practices, like prayer. We neglect them at our peril, especially in a world so apt at forming us to be unwise.
The annual rhythms of the church calendar provide a coherent ordering to time that we need in an unstructured age. Today, time tends to be ordered around whatever is currently trending in the news, whatever hashtag day it might be or whatever commercial “holiday” it is where we are encouraged to buy stuff. In contrast, time in the Christian tradition orients us around God and his story.
The ancient church calendar rhythms and weekly worship rhythms of the local church can be powerful counter-formational forces in our lives. Occasional or when-convenient appearances at church will hardly shape us. But showing up weekly and immersing yourself in a church’s “not-about-me” orientation can do wonders for your spiritual sanity in an unwise age.
Taken from The Wisdom of God-Centered Rhythms in a Me-Centered Age by Brett McCracken, Copyright ©March 28, 2021. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.”
Comments