Worship

We've been discussing worship quite a bit lately on the worship team. Appropriate don't you think? Anyway, we've been discussing free praise, flowing with the spirit, or whatever you want to call it. Its when you just feel the Holy Spirit moving in a certain direction and you go with it.

To those of us that have gone there, that's what it is all about. That's why we worship. To worship God and get to that placw where we just flow with Him. Not following what we know to do, but following what we feel. If you've never experienced it, it is hard to understand. And interestingly enough, there are a lot of people on worship teams who have never exprienced it. So, it makes it hard to just say, "go with the flow", "follow the spirit", etc... 'Cuz they have no idea what you are talking about.

I was thinking about that this week, while I was out on one of my 30 minute walks. Thinking about that, and thinking about when I've been on a team, worshipping, and all of a sudden you feel it. You know you are about to go somewhere... and all of a sudden it stops. The band doesn't want to go there, the worship leader cuts it off, whatever. Kind of knocks the wind out of you. So, I was thinking about all of that and I came up with an analogy.

Say you are climbing mountains. Could be 14erns... or maybe you are just going on a good climb. A long hike through the woods. Up into the beautiful mountain valleys. Places to just get away from it all. Well... you are part of a team that is going to lead a hike for quite a few people and you have a leader. Before you take a lot of people on the hike, you do some practice runs. The leader, the rest of the guides including you. You follow the trail and it is really beautiful. You just can't believe it. Nice meadows, streams, beautiful flowers, etc. You get to where you are really good, and then you start leading other people.

Its really cool... but you know there is something more. You sense there is something besides the normal path. Maybe over the hill there are some really cool flowers you've never seen before. Maybe around that one bend, where the trail forks, and the other path gets all misty... Maybe it is leading to an awesome waterfall... You just know there is more.

Well one day you are wondering down the path, just looking at the ground and the flowers. You've done it so many times, you can do it w/o even thinking. And you're thinking about how there must be more... and all of a sudden you notice you are on a different trail. You look ahead and the leader is following a new trail. You can't see where it goes, but you are excited to find out. You look back, and some of the guides are following you... but others aren't. What if the leader doesn't know where he is going? (He does). What if we get lost (We won't). We've never done this before, we should still to the trail (No we should go where our heart is leading us).

That's how worship is... Sometimes you just know the Holy Spirit wants to go a different direction. You can feel it. You can hear the angles singing. You know there is something better... and you start to go there. Sometimes a team will go, and sometimes they will turn around. Its a matter of experience and a matter of trust.

Once you've gone there. Once you've seen that "new waterfall", those "beautiful flowers", you want to see them again. And not just them, but whatever else is out there. But you have to trust that what He has for you is better than what you are experiencing now. And that He only has the best for you. Once you've been there, once you've trusted Him... it gets easier. And it just keeps getting easier, because now you KNOW and you've been there.

I'm very encouraged lately. We are going there... It make take a little while. Some people may have to go to a new level of trust. But its starting to happen. Each trip we take, we wonder up a new trail a little bit more. Even if we turn around... I know that soon, we'll just keep going.

I can't wait!