Many Ways to Worship

This evening, my Mom and I went to an Interfaith Easter Concert, in which we heard many beautiful, but very different, selections of music. There was an a cappella performance, at least two instrumental ones, and several that had various blends of instrumental and vocal components. Some of the songs were exuberant, and others were mellow.Most all of them were powerful, and I felt the spirit many times during the concert.

This experience reminded me that there are many ways in which a person can worship God. We might praise Him joyously, or thank Him reverently. We might pray vocally, or in our hearts. Our faith can lead us to act diligently, preparing for our eternal future, or to take a step back and re-center ourselves, leaving the tumultuous present and the regretted past in the hands of a caring and forgiving God. I'm sure there are some wrong ways to try to worship God, but I'm also sure that most of the ways people actually follow are probably perfectly acceptable to Him.

A person doesn't have to be a Mormon to reach the Celestial Kingdom. They have to get all the saving and exalting ordinances eventually, but they don't have to convert to Mormonism to do that. What we need is to be converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I think most Christians already are. As long as people are trying to be righteous and serve God as their consciences direct them, they're probably doing alright by Him, and that's plenty good enough for me.

Just as there are many kinds of good music, I think there are many kinds of good people and good methods of worship. My belief is that God cares more about people's hearts than their specific philosophies. We may differ on many points of doctrine, even some important ones, but pretty much everyone believes in being a basically decent person, and that's the part that I think really matters.