Choir Robes and Work Boots

On a weekly basis, most of us sing songs of amazing commitment, making seemingly heartfelt promises – but how many of them will we keep? Yes, music helps us rest in God’s presence, but too often we walk out of church and go our own selfish ways, forgetting all that we sang and promised just moments before.  

You will find no verse in the New Testament in which Jesus commands his disciples to sing for at least a half hour once a week. But you can hardly go two pages without encountering Jesus’ call to commitment, a call he applied and fulfilled in glorious fashion. Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4, emphasis added). 

It’s not helpful to pit musical worship against service; the two should go hand in hand. But if we lack Jesus’ sense of giving God glory by completing the work he gave us to do, our worship will suffer accordingly. Consider how often Paul calls believers “fellow workers” (see 1 Corinthians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 6:1, emphasis added), not “fellow singers.”  

One of the great misunderstandings of our day is that worship and singing are considered synonyms. If only working received the same top billing!  

Music is a wonderful gift from God that can constitute a true act of worship, but once the worship service is over, if we do not exchange our choir robes for a good pair of work boots, our empty promises will count for nothing, no matter how beautifully they were sung. What work – that is to say, what worship – is God calling you to be involved in today? 

an excerpt from Holy Available