Worship is... 
By Bruce Koblish
President, The Worship Network
I’ve been a fly fisherman most of my life. As in most things done over a lifetime, I’ve experienced successes and failures, constant learning on the path of trying to perfect a technique, and a lot of discovery that simply happens in the process.
I guess there is a bit of pride and snobbery that sneaks in along the way, too. Over the years I’ve gone through the process that many fly fishermen do as they grow older and gain more experience. I’ve gone from just wanting to catch a fish, to wanting to catch many fish, to now wanting to catch fish a certain way. I would probably agree with a line from A River Runs Through It and wish that “nobody who did not know how to fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him.” I wonder if the fish know that!
But one thing has not changed for me as I have stood in many rivers across the country, surrounded by the absolutely stunning beauty of God’s creation: I’m brought to a place that nothing else I do allows me to do consistently. I’m brought to a place where I can “let go” of life’s tension and struggles and then enter a deeper place of peace, focus, serenity, and escape.
Every time I am out on a river, I will say out loud, “Thank you God for the beauty of your creation!” My son, now 21 years old, has heard me say that many times over the years as we have shared a river or a boat out on Grandma’s lake. I’ve heard him snicker a few times and he’s probably thought more than once that I was losing my mind.
So, what does this have to do with worship?
Well, I believe that worship is about letting go: letting go of self, of preconceptions of who God is, of life’s circumstances, and of everything that hinders us from focusing on the absolute beauty of God revealed in this world. My response is expressing back to Him my adoration and devotion.
Sometimes we are too focused on what worship sounds and looks like rather than discovering first of all what true “worship is.” It’s kind of like some of the people I’ve seen on the Western rivers. Fresh out of a local flyshop with new waders, a new rod & reel, gadgets everywhere, and a professional guide at $350 a day, they look like flyfishermen. But watch long enough to see one cast and you know they are posing for a day or two to entertain a corporate client. Trying to look the part rather than understanding what it is we’re truly doing, whether on a trout stream or in the local church, is missing the point.
When we do discover true worship, however, our lives will demonstrate worship through everything we do because we will be doing it as an understanding of God rather than as a ritual. In our world, where perception often seems to supercede fact in politics, advertising and even in church, isn’t it more important to focus on the substance of what worship truly is?
Recently I fished on Armstrong’s Spring Creek—often called “Paradise Valley”—near Livingston, Montana. As I stood in the waters and looked to the east I saw this amazing view, one that exuded mystery, power, and a strange sort of beauty. This image represents a bit of what worship is to me: letting go, finding the true God in the midst of the unsettled and intriguing storm clouds, going to a place that is confidently unfamiliar, and yet clearly seeing the beauty that His creation always proclaims.
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