On Walking and Sinking

“To dwell only in the world of objective analysis is to chill your own soul.” So says David de Bruyn in a post entitled “On Adoring Or Analysing”, which concerns a conflict even mature Christians regularly experience. Put succinctly, you cannot do a thing and think about doing it at the same time.

Peter provides a fine illustration of what happens when your thoughts stray from “Let’s just get closer to the Lord” to “Hey, I’m walking on water in the middle of a storm!” All of a sudden, Peter wasn’t walking on water anymore. He was just wet.

David’s reflection may not be original (it was triggered by a lengthy quote from C.S. Lewis), but he’s correct. Grasping what Christianity requires of us is not the same as obeying its truths. We may correctly understand the biblical concept of worship without ever engaging in it. Done right, the study of scripture may lead to worship, but neither the act of studying nor the act of relating what you have discovered from your studies to others is innately worshipful. Thinking about and thinking of are not the same. They are also mutually exclusive. Thus, it’s impossible to analyze and adore at the same time. Likewise, the moment you become conscious you are singing or praying well, you are no longer doing either worshipfully.

I find this in the Lord’s Supper from time to time. A younger man (usually, but not always) will get to his feet and give an explanatory thought about a passage that seems unrelated to the reason we have gathered. The problem is not generally a matter of theological correctness. He may exposit the text quite adequately. But when he concludes and sits down, I am left puzzled about what this has to do with the task at hand. We are there to remember the Lord Jesus, as he commanded, seeking to turn our hearts to the person and work of Christ. If you are particularly ingenious, perhaps you can get to the cross, the resurrection, the ascension or the glories of Christ’s character from Korah’s rebellion, Balaam’s donkey or Jacob’s preference for Joseph over his brothers. More often than not, would-be worshipers don’t. Rhapsodizing over the thing they’ve discovered about the passage, they have forgotten where they set out to go with it.

This may even be true when the subject is the Lord Jesus. It’s easy to get so caught up in how to explain what you are thinking that you’re no longer thinking about it. Moreover, every moment a fellow would-be worshiper spends analyzing your analysis is also time well wasted, at least where worship is concerned. It’s not a matter of being critical: even the thought “That was well put” becomes a diversion from the content of what was actually said.

Sometimes the purest and most heart-warming devotional thoughts are the simplest. But getting to them and holding on to them is no easy task.