Worship can quietly shift from being something we offer to God to something we perform for ourselves or others. Excellence is not the problem. The problem is when the experience becomes the goal — when the feeling becomes the measure of truth. When that happens, we keep the glow, but lose the weight.

The world keeps chanting, “You are what you achieve.” Jesus breaks through with a better word: “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”

Fruitless soil cannot save us. Time is mist. The Gardener kneels in mercy, digging deep, calling us to repent, to abide, to bear fruit. The cross has broken the ground—life is planted. The question is not if Christ is working, but if you will yield before the ax is laid to the root.