Striving

This afternoon I have been preparing to lead a rehearsal with our band that will happen in a few hours. It’s the technical side of planning… listening to the songs, thinking through the flow from verse to chorus, planning the peaks and valleys of a song that engages the emotion (soul), all leading to a place of helping people connect their spirit with God in our weekend worship gathering. I am not a gifted worship leader. I have had experience with music all my life, but I have to work at it. As a side note, I am a pastor and not uniquely called to be a music worship leader. A pastor is an equipper, so the area of music worship has been an issue of prayer. I am convinced that God is allowing this season to teach us the depths of worship. In the middle of that, I am praying that He will develop within or bring from outside a person spiritually and naturally gifted to lead in this area. That aside…I think that it is all too easy to neglect the need for God’s grace when either we are exceptionally gifted in an area, or have just enough to get by. When we have a high level of giftedness – musically and in leadership in this case – we can easily default to that natural gift. If we have just enough to get by, we tend to work so hard at the technical details and forget about the spiritual dynamics of dependence upon God’s grace. Today I want to remember to be totally dependent upon God – in my abilities and my inabilities.