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My gift is my song and this one’s for you 

Traffic Jam on M25Hearing an Elton John song while stuck in traffic on the M25 inspires Norfolk Christian speaker Ruth Tong to reflect on the sacrifice of true worship.

“Worship is not about music; worship is an expression of the heart. It’s an outward working of an inward stance” Dennis Merry

We parked on the M25 yesterday, a lorry had broken down and so like the clogging of an over worked artery, part of Greater London was forced to grind to a halt as breakdown services were called.

As we approached the flashing signs and gradually slowed to a standstill Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ came on the radio. The words describe how a lover would use his talents to show his love and this got me thinking about my own expression of love to my first love – Jesus.

Traffic Jams are a great place to think deep thoughts, to reflect on life - where you've been, what you’re doing and where you’re going. I was thinking about the different ways us humans show love and how that out works on a personal level. I wonder about that inner stance of my heart; I wonder because when all is said and done it is this inner stance that will delight or grieve the Spirit.

I concluded that real expressions of love cost. It costs because human beings are messy. Relationships are complex and there’s a process, a journey in the working it all out of it all. Something beautiful is produced through the desire to connect deeply and cherish another person.

We are often so wrapped up in ourselves we fail to recognise the sacrifice of love or worse we gloss over or belittle the cost another pays. If you've ever loved you’ll know the cost… the searing vulnerability, the risk taken to offer love in the hope it will be returned.

Great masterpieces, entrancing poetry, captivating sculptures or magnificent buildings take huge effort and resources willingly given. Freely given - energy, money and time just to offer an insight, a hope, an expression of love from the depth of one soul to another and all without guarantee of love in return.

Psalm 42:7-8 says: ‘Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me - I lift up a prayer to the God of my life’.

So how do we worship? Beloved, we do whatever it takes. We overlook our frustrations, our misunderstanding, our self-focus or our impatience with God. We press through all our junk because we love; helpless in gratitude because He first loved us. We choose to love others because He first loved us.

Jesus this is my article... and this one's for you.

Love Ruth x


Photo: Traffic jam on the M25 by N Chadwick 
 
Ruth Tong is the Coordinator of Women’s Ministries at Downham Market Christian Fellowship and the author of ‘Love Drops from Heaven’.  Ruth regularly blogs at http://lovedropsfromheaven.blogspot.co.uk

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