There are multiple expressions of love. Expressions of love can be the spoken word, the written word, body language, sign language, symbols and those which I will focus upon, actions. I tend to believe that the greatest expressions of love are those which are represented through our actions. There is the handshake which is a greeting or a sign of an agreement, there is the wink which is a sign of trust, there is the embrace, which is a sign of brotherhood, sisterhood, closeness and so forth, and there is the kiss a display of the deepest affection.

I am proposing that we express love in so many different embodiments because we are ill equipped to actually describe the way love makes us feel. I was pondering this question as I attempted to logically explain to myself why I married my wife. I could not express my feelings in writing, I could not describe it by painting, I could not describe why through speaking. It was actually my own inability and silence that allowed my mind to understand what my heart already knew.

Marriage was the only expression of love that was appropriate, the only expression that could even begin to explain the heart of the matter. I could not utter or write, or signify that which I wised to explain, there remained only action. To attach my life to hers through this beautiful union was the only expression that could adequately describe such a feeling.

I feel the same way about worship, it seems the only adequate response to express my feelings toward God. I worship because I have no other way to respond, its complicated but the truth none the less. As God is with us incarnated physically in community, God beckons me to respond to my community and toward God. That response can only be an action, I cannot describe it by speaking or writing the way in which I feel, I am compelled to express it through action alone as it is the only fitting response.

Now, when I say worship I don’t mean going to a particular building and singing particular songs toward heaven, I’m not programmed to engage God in this way, nor am I engaged by God in this way. By worship I mean loving God and others through my very life at all times, through all means available to me. This worship is the only response that is able to be a response, it is the only response that qualifies as a response. In this way love cannot be an abstract response, but love can only be action.

About JoshuaDbauIII

Joshua David Bau is a Doctor of Ministry Student in social and economic innovation at Bethel Seminary in collusion with Trans4m University in Geneva, Switzerland. He lives in St. Paul with his beautiful wife Gracie. He enjoys long walks on the street, painting and cooking.