“It’s your existence I love you for”
In a sermon Friday at the Calvin Seminary chapel (which CICW staff attended with a contingent of visiting worship leaders), Scott Hoezee of the Center for Excellence in Preaching said that our love for friends or family members “goes beyond the specific things we like about them” to a “fundamental delight that this unique person is there at all.” Hoezee quoted a character in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead who says, “It’s your existence I love you for.” Loving God, Hoezee says, “begins with a sheer delight that God exists and has made himself known to us.”
It was a helpful introduction to the first of the 8 things we say in worship: Love You//Praise.
Also see: Practicing Right Relationship from Alban Weekly
Next entry: WOWAW 19: Worship as God's 'language school for life'
Previous entry: Preparing to Pray 10/26/05