While at the beach last week, my family went on a sunset airboat ride through the marshes. The ride included an hour and a half of alligator hunting. Mark and I had done it several years ago, and wanted the girls to experience it. And what an experience it was!

I spent the entire ride watching the sun fade into the evening sky. I heard bits and pieces of the alligator facts our guide was rattling off, but mostly, I was craning my neck in every direction to watch the sky. And with each change in the view, I thanked God for such a magnificent creation. I was completely humbled to be in the presence of such Beauty.

I’m a regular church attender {ok…well, I admit to being a total slacker during the summer}, but no church service could even begin to compare with the worship experience I had on that airboat with my family and ten or twelve strangers. Of course, I never spoke a word aloud, but I was in complete awe of the Creator. Lyrics from some of my favorite worship songs kept running through my mind, and I have to say that I had to restrain myself from bursting into song! {Not to mention…my kids would’ve been mortified!}

All that to say…

Worship can happen anywhere, anytime. We’re so often taught that worship happens on Sunday mornings inside the walls of a building. And it very well can, though I’m afraid it often doesn’t. Of course, if worship is a matter of the heart, then I have to admit that I probably have built walls around mine when it comes to the organization of the church. It’s been the source of too much hurt, too much legalism, too much. So, no, worship doesn’t come easily for me inside the church building.

But on that airboat, in the middle of the marsh, surrounded by strangers and alligators, worship was a natural outflow of my heart. It was my heart’s response to its Creator and Lover.