During my early teen years working on the family's southern Indiana farm, one of the summertime challenges was bailing hay. ...Walking field after field of freshly cut and baled hay under a blazing sun, loading flat-bed trucks and trailers by hand with the bales and then hoisting and stacking them into the highest peaks of a stifling-hot barn, all while encased in caked layers of chaff/dust and perspiration. Then Aunt Anna or Aunt Martha would arrive with gallons of homemade lemonade! Absolutely amazing! Lunch never lasted long enough but it sufficiently restored just enough energy to duplicate the effort through the afternoon heat.

 

For many, this perfectly describes their perception and expectation of "worship" (@20 minutes each Sunday morning). God, however, does not intend true worship to just be a breather ...a brief refreshment amidst the struggle. 

 

Worship is a solution, not a Band-Aid. It's not a temporary fix or a moment or two of relief--it's not a 20 second time-out, it's not therapy and it's not just another coping mechanism! (...Actually, first of all, it's not about you!) Worship is not a roadside lemonade stand, it's a gateway--the threshold to a destination!