I love worship songs. There are some great ones out there. But there's one thing that bothers me: when the song lyrics include an action.
Now, what I mean by that is when the lyrics say something like "I lift my hands up", because 90% of the time, no one is actually raising their hands. Something about that seems very wrong. To sing those words without raising your hands is a blatant lie. But then, if you raise your hand solely because the song says to, that's also kinda bad cause you're just doing something the song says to. You're not raising your hands in worship. So, you get stuck in a lose-lose.
The other part of this is that the same song that has a lie about having hands lifted up most likely also has a line about some other action. It probably talks about trusting God or trusting him, and for me that's problematic to some extent. You just lied about raising your hands. So how can anything else you say be trusted?
I know that's kind of silly, because it's really about your heart. But, then again, I feel pretty strongly about honesty, so forcing people into a lie in worship doesn't sit well with me.
Things can be taken literally or figuratively. Maybe one's attitude during singing is one that reflects the physical action of lifted hands. For me, sometimes songs say things that may not be true in my life at that point so I often sing songs as a prayer, telling God I desire to be that way or even that I want to desire to be that way.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I hate when the worship tells you to stand and sing. What if I worship better sitting or kneeling? Or what is I am visiting and already feeling super awkward and now people are telling me when to sit and stand.
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