As the people of God were entering into this new land he was giving them, he said, “your pattern of worship will change”. And this year, that’s been true for me too. I remember at the beginning of the Race hearing about iPod worship and I’ll be honest, after 10 years of being on the worship team, I wasn’t too excited about the prospect of “canned” music. But when you’re on a team with no instruments except a leg guitar and a mouth trumpet, you have to work with what you’ve got.
Let’s be honest, the iPod only gets so loud. And when the music isn’t loud enough, people get awkward and don’t sing out. It ends up like a bad fourth grade Christmas pageant. So, my genius team leader, Brittani came up with this idea.
We all make our own worship play list with songs that move us each into the presence of God. Then we put in our headphones, crank up the volume and just sing at the top of our lungs. That’s right, each one of us singing something different to the Lord.
Inhibition is removed. It’s like shower singing at it’s finest.
You know that scene in Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth and Darcy dance for the first time? The scene begins full of people and noises, but soon their world fades to an empty hall, colored only by the sound of their hearts and the instruments being plucked in harmony.
That’s what this worship is like. Everyone starts out kind of quiet, but then one person gets freedom and just starts belting it out, singing unashamedly to their Maker. And then it happens, we all get caught up in the presence and forget there’s even anyone else around.
This week when we were partaking in this kind of worship night, I was singing “We the Redeemed” by Hillsong United. As the song quieted down into the bridge, I heard my six other teammates, singing their own song to the Lord. Let me tell you, musically, it wasn’t pretty. Seven different songs going on at the same time, people standing on furniture and dancing around like David before the Ark of the Covenant…but as I was taking all this in, I hear through my headphones, “this is the sound of the redeemed, rising up to praise the King”.
This organized chaos, this beautiful cacophony, this heartfelt, undignified praise…is the sound of the redeemed. And it was such a beautiful reminder to me of our lives. We’re all singing our own song to the Lord. Your song is different than my song. We might be in different keys. Maybe your song is at the crescendo while mine is still being written. Maybe we’re in different genres.
To the untrained ear, it sounds like a train wreck. But to the big-picture, infinite Creator, we’re a masterpiece symphony, a sweet sweet sound in his ear.
So it’s time you stopped worrying about what the person standing next to you is doing and change up your pattern of worship.
Worship with your life, with your voice, with everything in you.
Let’s be like David in 2 Samuel 6:21-22.
“I was dancing before the Lord… Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes.”
Because this crazy dance, this original song, this is the sound of the redeemed.
