thoughts on worship

matt and i are both reading Blue Like Jazz right now and loving it. the subtitle of the book is "nonreligious thoughts on christian spirituality". i would also describe it as being "refreshingly raw".

last night on our drive to Chicago (we made it this time!) i read some pretty sweet stuff in his chapter on worship that i just thought i'd share:

It comforts me to think that if we are created beings, the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it. It would have to be greater than the facts of our reality, and so it would seem to us, looking out from within our reality, that it would contradict reason. But reason itself would suggest it would have to be greater than reality, or it would not be reasonable... (p201)

Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me... (p202)

he goes on to recount going up Mount Tabor, overlooking Portland, many times throughout the summer to watch the sunset, and makes this observation concerning the beauty he would see there night after night...

I thought to myself, This is something that happens all the time... All the beauty happens right above the heads of more than a million people who never notice it.

Here is what I've started thinking: All the wonder of God happens right above our arithmetic and formula. The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship. (p203)