Thoughts on worship...

So just in case you had not heard I recently became the interim pastor of worship on top of my other responsibilities at my church. This has been an incredible experience. I have always loved worship and have been completely blessed to have been apart of different churchs all with incredible worship leaders. I have also been active in the creating of worship services with these great leaders. But it is a totally different experience when you are the leader of these worship experiences. And the spiritual battles that come with this position is great. Last week was my first time leading in this role and during the second service for some reason the strap on the guitar I was using would not stay on. I know this sounds like nothing big, but when you are standing and moving around and rocking out and your strap falls off it is very hard to hold the guitar in place for long. But that wasn't even it...the second time it fell off while I was fighting to hold up the guitar (at a bit of an angle) I some how cut my thumb. So I am not only trying to hold this guitar but my finger is bleeding as I strum. And if that was not enough...the blood was getting on the strings which was slowly making the guitar go out of tune!!! BATTLE TIME I TELL YOU BATTLE TIME!!

The amazing thing was that I have found no one that noticed! Well except my wife :) But everyone was very encouraging of the worship time! Now that is God through His Holy Spirit at work. You see, I am learning more and more now by experience that worship is not much about my words, instrument playing, tone, etc. but it is all about coming to a place in which I simply give God my full attention heart, mind, strength, and soul. As distracted as I felt, my desire to give God praise never changed, in fact I was fighting for it, not just for me, but also for the congregation. That was all I could do. And the more a reflect on it the more I see how God was honored even in the midst of what was chaos. And isn't that what our life is like? Honoring God in the midst of the chaos and things of life! I think so!

Here is a quote I found on worship I have been meditating on.

"Worship is enacting God’s story to a world that has lost its story."

by James Torrance

I have asked my self "Self...what is it that makes us loose the story of God in our lives?" The answer for me is that I get consumed/distracted by the chaos and forget that God is there in the midst of my story! Worship is a place in which we can come together and collectively re-focus and re-memeber the truth of God. It re-minds me that even when the "straps of life" are falling off and the "bleeding" we go through hurts and stains, we can still go through it and not loose our desire to worship God in the midst of it!

I'd love any thoughts on this...

May you be aware of God's presence in your story today!