Chain Emails and Rounds of Applause

This was written in early 2011 and I am resurrecting it from the drafts folder. 

If you have an email address, then you've probably received a chain email with a threat like this:

"If you don't forward this to 13 people, you will be attacked by a madman at midnight and all your friends will hate you and you'll have bad luck for the rest of your days."

And if you're anything like me, you shoot the email a challenging look, and press delete.

It's annoying and not really that much of a threat, right?

So anyway, something similar to this is something that happened to me last week. I was in chapel, and the worship leader was talking and said something to the effect of "If you love Jesus, you'll clap your hands right now!" And the room was filled with clapping and cheering immediately.

I couldn't help but wonder if that was really the way to do worship. Sure, it's not really a big deal or anything, but I sort of felt like it was just silly manipulation. What will happen if we clap? What will happen if we don't?
I'll tell you what: Nothing. I didn't see the point in clapping for that reason and so I didn't. Pretty sure my eternal state is still secure. Pretty sure I haven't lost fellowship with Christ for not clapping.

This sort of approach to the Christian life bothers me. If our faith is nothing more than a round of applause at the name of Jesus, what does that say about Him? In my opinion, we come off as idiots. "I love Jesus" bumper stickers, with no substance.

I'm sorry, but that isn't the kind of faith I want to have. I want a living, vibrant faith that has a foundation. I want to know what I believe and to allow those things to influence my worship.

I have nothing against raising hands in worship or rejoicing in our Savior. I just think that we need to let our faith be solid and not carried by our emotions. As Christians, we represent the name of Jesus.

Are we making Him out to be much less worthy by our actions?