Heart of Worship

I have spent this evening working on writing worship songs with some friends.

 

We have had a brilliant evening playing around with words and melodies and meanings.  And we have produced something with which we are all really pleased.

 

At one point in the evening we were wrestling with an awkward line which didn't seem to fit, but which we didn't want to lose.

 

It felt as though we were struggling and trying too hard to make something fit, that it became a bit artificial.  It was no longer an outpouring of our hearts: our syllable-counting, make-it-rhyme, neat-and-tidy minds got in the way.

 

We played around with it for a bit and then just left it for a while and started just singing what was on our hearts. 

 

And in all of that, we refocused on what was important - on what we were singing and why we were singing it and, most importantly, to whom we were singing.

 

And as we sang, the line made sense.  It fitted.  Without forcing or coercion.  We realised what mattered more was what was on our hearts. 

 

Becasue our worship and praise to God should be a response from the heart

 

"For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

 

[Luke 6:45 NIV]

 

As Matt Redman sang,

 

"I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about you

It's all about you, Jesus."

 

 

The heart of worship is the worship of our hearts.

 

It's all about Him.  And it's all for Him.

 

 

 

10,000 reasons

When I started writing my blog, I didn't plan to write every day. 

It just sort of happened. 

 

I kept seeing things throughout the day that were evidence of the overlap between the 'secular' and the 'sacred', the golden and the grey.  I read novels or articles, or heard things on the radio or overheard conversations, or watched something on TV or in a film which triggered my thoughts and helped me to evidence of the sacred in the secular.

Some days I haven't been sure what to write about at all.  But by the end of the day, something has come to me, something has been revealed.  There has always been something more to write about.  There is always more to discover of God and more of His goodness and kindness to unveil. 

 

And there is always more of His work to see in the world around us.

Matt Redman writes in his worship song, '10,000 Reasons' -

"You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find."

 

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find. 

 

My heart hasn't got anywhere near finding ten thousand reasons to praise God.  Sometimes I struggle to get to ten.

 

Sometimes I can let myself become distracted by all of the negative or difficult or painful things in life, and I forget to look past them, to the God that I love and who is worthy of my praise, regardless of how I am feeling.

 

I want to be like the Psalmist who wrote,  

 

           "Let all that I am praise the Lord;
           with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
           Let all that I am praise the Lord;
           may I never forget the good things he does for me.
           He forgives all my sins
           and heals all my diseases.
           He redeems me from death
           and crowns me with love and tender mercies.

           He fills my life with good things.
           My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!"

 

[Psalm 103:1-5 NLT]

 

Perhaps when I reach 10,000 posts, I might be closer to discovering all that there is of God and all that there is to praise Him for.  But I rather imagine that as I deepen my relationship with God and strengthen my understanding of Him, there will always be more things to discover, and more things for which to praise Him.

The Grey Familiarity

I read this in a magazine article about photography today,

 

"In order to see we must practise looking beyond the grey familiarity of our everyday world."

 

The article was about learning to see things differently and to open our eyes when looking for photo opportunities.  To be purposeful in the things that we look for, and to look beyond the obvious.  Sometimes we become so familiar with what is familiar, that we forget to look beyond the surface.  We think we know what we will see and so we stop really looking.

 

I remember in Art GCSE we discussed this idea.  How often we think we know what we are drawing, and so we draw our idea of things, rather than drawing the actual thing.  I remember we went outside and practised drawing trees without looking at the paper.  It took a while to get used to, but what we actually drew was far more tree-like than if we had just drawn what we thought we saw.

 

It made us look properly and to see things afresh.

 

We can become so used to 'seeing' things in our lives too, without looking properly.  We assume we know what we are seeing and that we are seeing things properly, so we forget to look beyond the surface.  We end up settling for the grey familiarity of our everyday world.

 

We think we 'know' what our futures look like.  We think we know what our skills and talents are.  We think we know what we are capable of.  We think we know what other people think of us.  We think we know what God thinks of us.

 

But so often our thinking is wrong - it is based on the way things appear, on the surface of things.

 

But the Bible reminds us not to live by what we see on the surface, but to look deeper - to look beyond the grey familiarity.

"We live by faith, not by sight."

 

[2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV] 

 

I think perhaps I was drawn to this quote so much because of the name of my blog: The Golden and The Grey.  I started writing  several months ago because I felt challenged to look through the grey familiarity of my everyday life and to look for evidence of God's grace and glory.  To look for the golden in amongst the grey.

 

In his song, 'When the Music Fades', Matt Redman reminds us that God looks beyond the surface too:

 

        You look much deeper within

        Through the way things appear

        You're looking into my heart.

 

God looks beyond the surface, and so should we. 

Look through the grey familiarity.  Look for the golden opportunity.

 

 

 

Storms and Tempests

Yesterday, I went to watch a production of The Tempest. 

 

It was quite fitting as we had had heavy thunder and rain all day.  In fact, I don't remember ever hearing thunder that loud before.  It sounded both like gunfire (although I'm not sure I've ever actually heard gunfire before, apart from on TV, so what I imagine gunfire sounds like), and someone hammering a sheet of metal.

 

It was noisy and powerful and overwhelming.  And once I got back to my flat, it was exciting.

 

But being caught in the middle of a storm - whether literal or emotional or spiritual - can be terrifying.  We feel out of control.  Powerless.  We are reminded of how small and vulnerable we are and it scares us.

 

The disciples experienced this powerlessness and fear:

"One day Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let's cross to the other side of the lake.'  So they got into a boat and started out.  As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap.  But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake.  The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.

The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, 'Master, Master, we're going to drown!'  When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves.  Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.  Then he asked them, 'Where is your faith?'"

[Luke 8:22-24 NLT]

 

When we face storms in our own lives, it can often feel like God is taking a nap.  We wonder how He can be sleeping through it all.  We listen for His voice and look for His fingerprints on the situation and are met with silence. 

 

I listened to someone talk on this passage recently who said, "Like the disciples, we want to shake Jesus awake and say, 'Don't you know what I'm going through?  Don't you care?'" 

 

Don't you care, God?

 

Yes. 

 

Our God cares.

 

The God we cry out to in our storms is the same God to whom the disciples cried out on the lake.  He cares as much about our storms and tempests and trials and troubles as He did about those of the disciples.  And He is longing to calm them for us.

 

Often, in my experience, I have noticed that He will calm us and give us His perfect peace [Philippians 4:8], rather than getting rid of the storm itself.  He enables us to endure the situation - we can weather the storm.

 

In his song, 'You Never Let Go', Matt Redman writes -

 

Even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't turn back, I know you are near.

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

 

When the storms come, we can ask ourselves, as Jesus asked the disciples - Where is your faith?  Is it in the changeable, stormy circumstances?  Or is it in the One who can quieten and calm the storms with His voice?