Posts from the Past: With Eyes Wide Open
From May 2004:
OK, I confess…on a recent Sunday I disobeyed the worship leader.
I guess I never realized how bossy contemporary worship leaders can be until I became one myself and started really paying attention to how other leaders led. One of the first things that struck me was how many directive phrases were used: “sit down! stand up! close your eyes! put your hand on your heart! raise your hands high! stand on one leg and do the hokey pokey!”
Well, three Sundays ago my LSW and I ‘retired’ from leading worship at our church as we prepare to leave for seminary in a few weeks. Another guy is leading the worship now, and it’s different. That’s not a bad thing; I certainly am not the poster child for worship leaders (that’s Michael W. Smith, isn’t it?).
But I had to disobey one of his directives.
At one point in the service, he suggested that it would be good for us to all close our eyes “so we can have our minds on God and not be distracted by those around us.” I’ve heard this many, many times in four decades of walking in Christendom. And I’ll grant you, on one level, other people around me in a worship service can sure be a distraction. Not just because of any noise they might be making, but also because I’m so tempted to think about whether I look ‘worshipful’ enough to them…or even if they notice how holy I look. So it would be easy to just close my eyes and make them all go away….just me and Jesus.
But I didn’t close my eyes.
Because God doesn’t want them to go away. He didn’t call me to worship “just me and Jesus.” He said, “Don’t forsake the gathering of yourselves together“. He said, “Sing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” As is often pointed out, our worship has both vertical (to God) and horizontal (for one another) aspects. As I gaze around the room, my brothers and sisters singing out their affirmation of Christ as Lord and Savior serve to encourage me, to draw me on toward God. And I hope that I do the same for them.
You are my brothers and my sisters. You are not a distraction.
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April 2nd, 2006 at 8:55 am
I love this post, Mark. And I missed it the first time.
April 11th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
mark,
thanks so much for posting this. you happened to post it when i have been thinking alot about the tendency in my life to ask God to pull me out of my circumstances so that i can worship Him instead of asking God to teach me how to worship Him in the midst of my circumstances.
i know it’s not directly related, but it did hit home with me. i also shared part of it in a devotional i gave at a church community building function we had last weekend and gave you full credit. suprisingly, no one had heard of you!
April 11th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Nate:
My surprise would be that anyone in California would have heard of me! Which brings the question: how did you happen to hear of me?
Anyway, turn about is fair play: I just posted a very funny piece of yours (with full credit, of course!)that I found on your blog.