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Now what does it mean to truly worship something? When I was a young boy, I think I must have been ten or eleven years old I wasn’t completely sure about the idea of worshiping. In a weird way the only thing that I did worship or at least have a strange form of admiration for was of course the television, as was the case with most children that age.
However despite that lack of understanding at that age, I was, dare I say somewhat pushed into going to church and my religion (Christianity) by my parents, and that eventually led to me becoming an alter server. As the years passed I did begin to enjoy serving, so much so that I looked forward to church every Sunday and at that point in my life I could rightly say that I had found that form of worship.
The problem that arose in years to come wasn’t the mere fact I was looking forward to going to church, but the problem was my reasons for going. After a long time of reflecting I finally realised that I was going to church for all the wrong reasons. The fact that the religion that I worshipped was forced onto me by my parents and the fact that I found socialising with my fellow alter servers more interesting then reading and understanding the teachings of Christianity, all highlighted the fact that I had been lying to others and myself for a long time.
However in a strange way I could feel as though my spirit was telling me that this wasn’t my right path and I felt that I needed to explore this feeling in order to find out what my calling was.
As my body developed so did my mind and I began to truly become aware of the elements around me. This may sound crazy but I could finally see things, within my community and also on a global scale for what they were. It was at this point that I felt as though I was getting closer to that calling. As a black man I felt as though I had been diluted by this culture and religion that I had embraced as my own. Living here for so long had made me lose focus and dismiss the idea of learning about the essence of my heritage.
At this point I started to look back at our history as Africans and the concept of our spirituality. Now I don’t wish to step on anyone’s shoes, I’m merely expressing my thoughts and feelings, but as you know Africans have always been spiritual, Christianity is nothing more then a religion that we have incorporated into our lifestyles, due to the influence of colonialists from Europe in the times of slavery and their need to spread the word of God, clearly ignored and eventually replaced our belief system. In Africa there were different interpretations of God, one of the Igbo names for God was ‘Chukwu’, this was our vision of a supreme spirit and the creator of our world. And the beauty of this spirituality is that wherever you went in Africa there was always a different name and interpretation for God, as this was our form of worship.
Byron Spradlin, President Artists in Christian Testimony defines worship as "The intentional attitudes and actions of focusing on God. It is the life-discipline we ought repeatedly to exercise and develop. It grows out of the foundational motive of deep and wonder-based gratitude to God for His salvaging and sustaining us”.
The problem that many African’s much like myself face is that our acceptance of Christianity has left us somewhat deluded and confused, simply because over time we have merely accommodated this religion and the lifestyle that comes with it. However it is hard to change your belief system, especially when it’s values are what have made you who you are today.
Personally I find myself faced with that same dilemma, as I to find it hard to either forget or dismiss a religion that has had such a huge influence on my life, when I was growing up, despite my present views on that same religion. Deep down I still have that belief instilled in me, and with that said it is hard to make that transition to another form of worship.
However as we look at society we see that many people have subjected themselves to worshipping pointless classifications, both social and materialistic, such as sex, money, drugs and alcohol.
As you can see it is very easy to find something of no substance or meaning to worship, because as humans we are susceptible to excepting things for what we perceive them to be, never truly challenging them if any doubts occur, and this falls down to our fear of the truth, because once we know the truth or begin to think for ourselves, our insecurities kick in. And if your belief system or that, that you worship is based upon something, which you question and scrutinise you have to wonder, whether or not this form of worship that you follow is for you or for someone else.
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