Love and Worship

[emberleo]

So, this will not seem terribly significant to many of you, I'm sure, but it's something I've wrestled with, so it counts as a kind of epiphany to finally put a finger on it this way:

Worship is not an expression of subservience. Worship is an expression of Love. More to the point, Worship is any expression of love.

It happens that Service is a major category for expressions of Love. It happens that Gifts are as well. These seem to be the two most commonly cited forms of Worship. But Verbal Affirmation, Physical Affection, and Time Spent are all expressions of love as well. And to me, a Desire to Know is the essence of Love itself - so anything that qualifies as expressing a desire to get to know me better registers as an expression of love.

Love Languages == Forms of Worship.

What's strange is that my human love languages don't seem to be the same as my divine love languages. With the Gods, my primary form of expression seems to be crafting gifts - my desire to know Them is expressed via an increased ability to make gifts that will please Them.

With humans my primary language seems to be Spending Time. Gifts are actually least significant to me by themselves. Or rather, Financial Expense is least significant to me. Gifts that show an understanding of who I am go over quite well, because they qualify as the result of a desire to get to know me.

But you don't really have to know me all that well to find shinies I will like - I'm a crafty pack-rat with overtly expressed tastes. I'm pretty sure I'm trivially easy to shop for, if all you're aiming for is my "Ooh! Shiny!" reaction. And I will never, ever complain about that, because I really do LIKE the Shinies. ;]

I suspect I have a tendancy to make people who do the giving feel loved simply by readily accepting their expressions of love towards me. Shinies make me demonstrably happy, but that's not quite the same as making me feel loved.

And I think I have finally put a finger on why I always feel just a tiny bit guilty when somebody gives me a shiny that I like - because I know they're trying to make me feel loved, and I know they aren't succeeding as directly in that as they probably think they are, because there's a layer of removal for me. So... it feels a little bit like lying, even though I'm not faking my happiness in the slightest.

--Ember--

Comments

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

*confused* Maybe it's the phrasing, but I feel like you're sideways to my point.

I don't see a contradiction to the idea of Worship being Expressions of Love. I've just tended to be a bit shy of the word Worship over the years because so many people I know equate it directly to Service, which they then seem to automatically equate with Following Orders. It's possible to serve others according to your own ideas and perceptions as well. It's possible to express love and thus to worship in manners other than acts of service. Where's the contradiction?

And yes, I know gifts are often given for other reasons as well - I never said ALL gifts were expressions of love.

--Ember--

[lysana.livejournal.com]

I've seen too many people parse worship without love, especially in pagan circles, to the point where if I see the words separately in a sentence, I begin to think I'm seeing it that way again. Especially if I'm reading it after only two hours of sleep.