Much of mankind suffers directional problems. God calls all whom He created to worship vertically and work horizontally. However, when I look around, I see a vast number caught in the snare of doing the exact opposite. They worship horizontally and work vertically.
Worship belongs to God alone. Our Heavenly Father, exclusively, is worthy of our adoration. Raising our heads, hearts and souls to God in heaven above is vertical worship. None the less, this is not the scene painted across our planet. Vast numbers in society worship what is found horizontally — wealth, fame, praise, power and even the ability to pulverize whom and what does not bow to their thoughts and desires. Shamefully, not God’s call, but man’s commands, source the catalyst for a growing percentage of modern-day worship.
As children of God, we are commissioned to care for those who, in need, stand horizontally beside us. Also, it is from here that God flows our rewards. “…If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58: 9b-11 (ESV). This is the fruition of horizontally working. Remorsefully though, this is not the common picture of today’s, at work, population. Instead, the majority invest their work into climbing the corporate ladder so they can vertically rise above the rest of the crowd. Reaching out to help others is replaced by stepping on, and over, all to get above them.
Vertical worship is reaching up to heaven in thanksgiving and praise to our ONE and ONLY GOD. Vertical work is toppling others to reach the stars and outshine all others.
Horizontal work is answering God’s call to reach out to those beside us and nurture their needs by reflecting God’s creed. Horizontal worship is, unquestionably, adoring what the world, mistakenly, proclaims to be the physical treasures that can fulfill our needs and longings.
This is the season of “O Come Let Us Adore Him” and “Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild, God and Sinners Reconciled”. However, for these written words to transcend into the breathing core of all our lives, our vertical and horizontal directions must be as God ordained them to be. Thus, this moment finds me examining the compass guiding my life’s journey. In the spirit of true Christmas sharing, please, feel invited to join me.
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 