Let Process Begin!

So I’m on this little journey called “life” – maybe you’ve heard of it – and I know there are specific things God is speaking to me (and you) right now; the question is, “What the heck are they?!” So maybe I don’t know everything He’s speaking right now, but I can start with what I do know – Worship.

I’ve been on a journey with music my whole life from singing “The B.I.B.L.E” at church as a kid, to singing loud the boy-crazy, heart-break songs with my girlfriends in middle/high school, to going goo goo eyed for the guy that plays the guitar in college, to stepping into my own role in music with playing and singing. I’ve had this passion for singing, for making music, for bringing my own song to the Lord, and I’ve always thought that was my worship to God, my calling. But over the last year or so  I’ve realized that making music isn’t really my act of worship at all…it’s the overflow OF my worship.

Recently I attended Bethel School of Worship in Redding, CA, which was an amazing opportunity and I got SO MUCH out of it. The problem is trying to process everything I got from school! So here’s my challenge to myself (and I’m inviting you to keep me accountable): I figure the best way for me to process all the information and revelation I received at school is for me to take one or two pages of my notes and look over them each week… and then look over them again and again until Holy Spirit shows me every aspect that He wants me to see from them. So to keep myself accountable, I’m going to blog about what I process each week. My goal is to take in every aspect of what I’ve received, learn to walk it out really well over the next year, and share my process with everyone around me. We’ll see how this goes.

So here’s what I’ve been chewing on this week from my notes:

Worship doesn’t have anything to do with music; music is just one way to express what we experience every day in relationship with God, which is where real worship begins – in the everyday. It’s being a good “me.” It’s waking up every day and saying, “I choose You, Lord.” It’s about responding in love instead of reacting out of anger, fear, or stress. It’s choosing to worship the Lord, to serve Him in literally every detail of our lives. “Yes, Lord, I’ll worship you in taking out the trash that’s overflowing that everyone else has walked by. Yes, Lord, I’ll worship you in doing the dishes after I’ve worked all day, come home and cooked, and tucked the kids into bed. Yes, Lord, I’ll worship you by choosing to love this person that just cocked an attitude with me in the grocery line. Yes, Lord, I’ll worship you in playing UNO ten times in a row with the kids. Yes, Lord, I’ll worship you in loving my spouse when their actions are on the verge of driving me nuts. Yes, Lord, I'll worship you by honoring my boss who's acting like a tool...again! I CHOOSE YOU, LORD.”

I think when we choose to say “yes” to Him in the small things, we will become the best we can possibly be, because the Perfect One will be involved in every aspect of our lives. You know that one friend you hang out with all the time whose mannerisms and sayings you take on? Same goes for when we hang out with God and invite Him into every part of our lives. When we choose to say “yes” to Him in the daily things it becomes natural to be who God has called us to be, to love well, to respond instead of react, to live a life of worship pleasing to the Father. Becoming the best “me” and the best "you" is part of our worship that will overflow into our musical worship and invite others into the presence of God. What would it look like if you were the best "you" you could be and how would that impact those in your sphere of influence?

OK, so all of that came from only one bullet in my notes (and there are pages of them) and this is only a tiny portion of what worship looks like in our lives! This may be a longer process than I thought, but I think I’m up for the challenge!