Your Lips Are Praising Me, but Why is Your Heart Way Over There?

"I'm double-majoring in piano performance, so I've got access to the good pianos," the lively freshman smiled as she unlocked the door to one of the practice rooms at WMU. I thanked her profusely and stepped inside, feeling like a starstruck fan meeting her favorite heartthrob.

Me and a Steinway all alone together? You've got to be kidding me, I thought as I set down my things and sat at the bench. I was spending two days as a substitute accompanist for voice students at Western Michigan University, and I decided to muster up the courage to ask one of the students to let me into a practice room, feeling like I was committing some sort of heinous crime.

Steinways cost upwards of $44,000, (those are the cheap ones,) and this beauty was no exception. It's very rare that I get to enjoy some quality time alone with one, and I suddenly wondered how to spend it.

I had everything in my bag- Mozart, Handel, Debussy, and even some of my favorite Broadway tunes. Setting it all aside, I decided to play the song that Jesus had given me one day months earlier to play to Him. At first I worried that the students in the surrounding rooms might hear me, but as the presence of God filled the room, I didn't care anymore. We were sharing a half hour of sheer bliss together, the deep, rich tones of the studio grand filling the tiny room.

The next day, I practiced with yet another student, this time in one of the smaller vocal rooms. I stayed after he left, thinking about how ironic it was that now I was sitting at an out-of-tune little upright, the sounds it made slightly resembling dying animals. But as I began to play to Jesus once more, I didn't even notice the sounds it made. And that was when I realized, the piano itself didn't matter at all. When it came to Jesus, an old giveaway didn't sound any better than a $44,000 grand. It was my heart that mattered to Him.

"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.'" Isaiah 29:13

We have a picture in our heads of what worship is supposed to look like and sound like and be like, but is that picture really accurate when we compare it with what God has in mind? Since He doesn't look at the outward appearance, do you think that our nice instruments, our sleek hairstyle, our crisp clothes and our sparkly jewelry really bring glory to His name the way that a focused heart does? The more I think about it, the more I realize that He never intended for us to put on a show.

All He wants is our heart, no matter what it takes to get it into His hands.