Praise.
We talk about praise a lot in church. There’s a plethora of worship songs talking about praise. Yet I’ve lived a lot of my life stuck in a rut of timidness and a little bit of stubbornness.
The song I linked in last week’s Secretary’s Corner, That’s Who I Praise, by Brandon Lake, is a song that has really hit me recently. The first time I heard it I didn’t like as much as I do now, because I had to learn the whole melody and then lead it in worship in under an hour. Stressful, much? That was a struggle, so I kind of dismissed the song. Then I heard it again. And I thought about the lyrics. And my head exploded.
Okay, not exactly. But some lyrics stuck out to me. The song starts like this: I wanna dance like David, I wanna faith like Paul, I wanna sing like Silas, tearing down those prison walls.
Upon first glance, dancing like David isn’t very appealing. Dancing through the city wearing my undertunic? No, thank you. But that’s not the point.
The point is that David danced before the Lord without a care as to who saw him. He simply offered his worship to Him. And I want to be like that. That doesn’t mean dancing. I don’t know if I’ll ever dance in worship, but I don’t have to. Some people will, some won’t. That isn’t the point. The point is focusing on God. I often worry about what other people will think. It doesn’t matter. I want to be able to worship the way God leads me. This has boundaries, of course. I don’t want to be a distraction. But—if I’m always afraid of distracting people, I’ll never follow the Lord’s leading. Sometimes following Jesus is breaking the mold a little bit. And am I okay with that?
I want to dance like David. I want to sing like Silas. I want my worship to have the power to break down strongholds! But I can’t if I won’t let myself.
I don’t know where I’m going here…I’m not trying to bash anyone. People can sing how they want and worship how they want: it’s not my life or decision to make. It would be selfish of me to want everyone to be the same. But I know this—I want to follow Jesus’s leading. Sometimes I stubbornly refuse to do things because other people do it. I don’t want to worship just because everyone else is. But what am I missing? My humanity draws me away from God; my need to be unique, to be my own person prevents worship. That’s not good either.
I want to worship our God the way He wants me to. That is the goal.
