Worship.
Josh and I are both involved in the worship ministry at our church, The First Congregational Church of Hopkinton. On our worship team, Josh plays the bass guitar and I am the lead female vocalist. Our team leads the congregation in worship once a month for both Sunday morning services.
Music has always been one of my greatest passions. I am so thankful God chose to give me some talent in the singing department, and I don’t consider it a coincidence that singing makes me more happy than most other things in my life. When I close my eyes and sing to God I find myself transported to a little world where only He and I exist. Singing is also an effective way of focusing my mind during devotions or prayer when I find my mind is wandering. There’s some kind of power involved with singing (and music in general) that I can’t explain.
After a service where my team has led worship, I inevitably have a few people come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed the worship music that morning, or how a certain song encouraged them in some way. It’s so wonderful to hear how God changes people through my service to Him, so I look forward to getting that type of feedback. I’m sure that sometimes there are people who didn’t particularly enjoy the worship music that morning, but usually I don’t have them come up and say that to my face. (And that’s just fine with me!)
One piece of encouragement I often hear which challenges me each time I hear it is: You did such a wonderful job this morning. I could totally see the love of Jesus in your face.
Wow.
That floors me. What a precious gift God has given me! And what a burden. Sometimes I think these people see me as some kind of sweet, pure, young woman with an incredible relationship with Christ, whereas I see myself as an immature, impure, young girl with a struggling relationship with Christ. Obviously, they don’t know me apart from what they see of me on Sunday mornings. But the question remains in my mind: if these people saw me during the week, would they see the love of Jesus in my face?
Lord, let me be more like the woman these people see: a young woman with the love of Jesus shining through her.
5 Comments so far
Leave a reply
I find it a shame that I have not heard you sing, Kathleen.
I feel the same way a lot of times….sometimes I think that people mostly just see the top layer of politeness, and I feel that if they got to know me better, they wouldn’t think that I was all that great.
It’s good to know there’s somebody out there who feels the same way
Wow. I totally know where you are coming from on this one. I play my flute every Sunday in my 2,000 + sized church and inevitably someone will comment about how I blessed them. It’s amazing, because some days I don’t feel like I could have blessed anyone, be it because I felt more nervous than usual, or I didn’t play very well, or I just was in a rotten mood, but the Lord always takes me and molds me and continues to use me regardless. I mean, I totally know that He’s in control when that happens! And that’s cool.
That joy you have in singing worship music in confirmation (if you need it) that your singing is not merely a natural talent, but a spiritual gift. As are the encouraging comments from others. Thanks for using your gift to build up the Body of Christ!
Has your team made any recordings?