As a worship leader I spend alot of time and energy working with things related to worship (ie. listening to music, reading the bible, working with musicians, singers, other worship leaders, and church leaders, and on and on). For me worship has become one of the valued cornerstones of  who I am. Yet, many times I find myself smack dab in the middle of all these "worship" related tasks but, my heart is far from God. I found myself in that place earlier this week. As I was going through the motions that go along with "worship" I was very aware of the distance between myself and the Lord. Wanting to "do" worship properly I found myself thinking maybe I should sing louder or dance around (which I did) but found no solution to my problem.

   The next day I was reading one of my favorite magazines and the following fell in my lap:

"God is not common: hence, worship is not a gig, not a right to prove our abilities, not an opportunity to sing our favorite songs. We worship because He is a holy God, and we the created - made for His pleasure - worship and serve the creator because He alone is worthy." -unsure of author.

   I realized that I had spent the night before doing the"gig, using my abilities, and singing along" but never truly engaging in worship. Now you may think, "don't be so hard on yourself" and to that I can honestly say I am good. First,I am good because all this happened at a worship practice and not in a service. But what really is inspiring me now is that I have "tasted and seen that the Lord is good" and the bar of expecation is set high in my spirit knowing the potential of the Lord as I worship him completely. Even as I write this my spirit is getting all wound up due to my looking forward to engaging the Lord with my church family this weekend.
    
    Could you and I agree to do something? Lets be sure that our approach to the Lord isn't dependant or built upon anything other than our highest praise and our bowed knees to "The Holy One".

Alton