I started reading Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ this week. Already there has been a lot that makes me think and i’m sure the book will influence my blog thoughts over the near future.

In the book the people worship Ford (the designer of the Ford motor car) and are having what is basically a church meeting. Everyone is getting in the whole experience, except for Bernard.

“Feeling that it was time for him to do something, Bernard also jumped up and shouted: ‘I hear him; he’s coming.’ But is wasn’t rue. he heard nothing and, for him, nobody was coming … he waved his arms, he shouted with the best of them; and when the others began to jig and stamp and shuffle, he also jigged and shuffled.”

Bernard was not authentic in his worship, but was so insecure in himself that he copied the others in the group in order not to stand out and appear different.

I wonder how authentic our worship of the true and living God often is. How much of it is replicating what other people do or adhering to the formula set down by previous generations? Admittedly worship will always follow a certain vain; you can just look at a music concert where people stand with their hands in the air, not dissimilar to that which we do in church, but we must consider ‘is my worship authentic?’. Matt Redman sang how he’d give more than a song for a song in itself is not what God requires. We must make sure that what we are offering to God in our worship is straight from the heart and not get caught in a trap of performing in order to fit in.