In 18 years either leading or serving in worship ministry, I have had a lot of moments where I have seen God clearly at work. I've seen him at work in churches, in fields, in pole barns, and in living rooms and I've watched him heal past hurts, answer prayers, give encouragement, and breathe new life into hopeless people in ways that leave them forever changed. Even so, with everything I've seen, there are still moments when he does the unexpected and surprises me.
Have you had these kinds of moments? These are moments when He completely captures your attention and puts a living, breathing testimony to his faithfulness in your line of sight and reminds you that these are not just words that we sing, but they are our prayers, hopes, dreams and stories as well as our testimony of who we know God to be because of the ways that he has met us in the depth of our need.
Sunday we introduced the song Great Things (Worth it All) by Elevation Worship. We had already played three services, but at our 605 Service I looked across the stage to see my beautiful bride Amy with one hand on the keyboard and one hand in the air. This is not an uncommon thing as we're both pretty demonstrative in our expression of worship, but this moment is one where God spoke to me so clearly through her worship that I encountered him in completely unexpected ways.
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| Photo courtesy of Jason Currie-Olson |
For those that don't know, Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly two years ago. She caught it early, but it was a fairly aggressive form that necessitated a summer's worth of chemo and surgery. She handled it with strength, grace, humor and a lot of prayer and every check up since has been a reason for us to celebrate. You can read more about her journey on her blog. It's worth the read.
Most days, we wouldn't even think about the cancer if it wasn't for the scars left by a bilateral mastectomy and subsequent reconstruction surgeries. They are scars that are prominent and scars that she finds ugly, but they are also signs of life and reminders of the journey that we've been on.
The moment that I saw Amy worshipping, hand in the air, we were singing:
Thank you for the scars I bear
They declare that You are my healer
How could I have seen Your strength
If You'd never shown me my weakness
Amy personified this lyric for me and I was immediately brought to tears as I was reminded of God's faithful presence with us through her cancer. I was reminded of how he answered prayers for provision through friends, family and strangers when she had to take the summer off from teaching. I was reminded of how he answered prayer for improvement in her platelet levels even though they had dropped throughout the course of her treatment. I was reminded of the countless times that his presence brought encouragement, strength and peace as I pleaded for her healing. God's reminders to me were so strong that I could hardly see through the tears and could hardly sing as my voice broke in thanksgiving.
I'm sure that Amy had been expressing her heart to God all day during that song. I'm not sure why it took me all day to see it. Maybe I was caught up in trying to play the right chords. Maybe I was too focused on the function of leading worship to pay adequate attention to the One I was intending to worship. Maybe it was because I needed to open up my eyes and look for the work that God was doing in our midst. Maybe it was because I needed that moment in that moment so that I could fully take it in and allow it to do the shaping that God intended. No matter the reason, I'm so glad that he surprised me.
I'll leave you with some of our beautiful Embrace Church family singing a simple version of Great Things. Hope it's an encouragement to you.
