Adrenaline & Worship?

For my professional credentials, I am required to earn 30 continuing education credits each year. This year I have chosen to take a 30 hour class on addictions to meet this requirement. I just completed a section on adrenaline addiction. The presenter, Archibald Hart, Ph.D., discussed the physiological purpose for adrenaline (to deal with emergencies, for short-term use), what triggers the body to produce adrenaline (high risk activities, stimulating games/activities, danger etc.) and how our own bodies become addicted to this chemical through craving the feel-good experience we get during the adrenaline rush.

In his presentation, Dr. Hart shared some very interesting thoughts regarding worship and adrenaline. He stated that "spirituality should not be adrenaline or excitement driven. Worship should offer peacefulness." He cautioned believers to be careful about the design of the worship experience, that it be driven by peace as opposed to being driven by excitement, which produces adrenaline.

It is important to understand that the chemical adrenaline itself "gives a heightened sense of well-being which can be misleading". With this in mind, it is understandable why people like excitement in their worship experience, because this excitement does produce adrenaline, which feels very good. However, it behooves us to evaluate where the sense of well-being is coming from, our worship of our heavenly Father, or from the effects of the adrenaline produced by our own human bodies during the worship experience.

The key question seems to be this. . . . .does our worship produce peace or an adrenaline rush that feels good? Dr. Hart encouraged us to manage (take control of) our own adrenaline, to work to enhance peacefulness (especially in our spiritual experience), incorporate healthy physical changes, work to learn how to let go of things/activities/feelings of being responsible for EVERYONE, etc.

What I am hearing from Dr. Hart is that we need more peace in every aspect of our life, especially during our spiritual worship experience. We must seek after the peace that passes all understanding comes from God alone.