Breathe
There are a couple of things that God has given me the ability to do and they are: 1) singing 2) being able to lead worship 3) teaching. None of these things I could possibly do on my own and I am not foolish to think that any of it is something I got on my own. These things are gifts from God. And I love using those abilities for His glory.
I was created for such a time as this. Plain and simple. All of us were.
Jeremy and I began leading worship about a year ago at a local outreach center here in Amarillo at least once a month. The people that show up at this outreach center every Friday at noon are ones who are desperately in need of food and clothing and honestly are having to sit through yet another Christian service to get a meal, groceries or clothing… or all of those things. The thing I love about going and leading worship there is every month, the people honestly don’t expect much in the way of ministry during that time. They frankly want to get in and get out. I can’t say I blame them. Today, somehow, it was different. What happened today has happened on a smaller scale over the past year during most times that we’ve led worship there. But today. Something special happened today.
For those of you who are worship leaders or pastors, have you ever noticed that there are times when you are standing on the platform and you get the feeling that the life has been sucked out of the room? Like you somehow are standing in front of people who aren’t breathing… That’s what was happening today. It was as if NO ONE was breathing. They were just there to simply make it just one more day. Little did they know what was about to happen. Heck! Little did I know what was about to happen!
Here’s a great question. How do you get people who have almost nothing, as far as possessions go, to worship? Have you ever tried? I’m talking about some of these people that I was standing in front of today do not have a roof over their head and literally do not have a clue where their next meal is going to come from. How do you get them to open up their mouths and sing? How do you get them to hope again? How do you get them to look at themselves as something special? As a treasure? As someone of worth? The answer is, you don’t. You can’t. You see, there is nothing in and of myself that could possibly make someone want to worship. The only One who can draw worship out of a human heart is God. As I stood on the platform today, there came a point about 2 songs into the “song list” that God was up to something a little different. I love that. All of the sudden, I was prompted to say something. I began just talking to them. I began telling them about my love for wind chimes and how my wonderful husband bought me wind chimes for Mother’s Day this year. In fact I know I wrote a blog about it. You can read it HERE. Anyway, I began to tell them how God spoke to me in my bathroom and how I cannot, for the life of me, figure out WHY He always likes to talk to me in the bathroom. The laughter came. The walls began falling. I then heard God saying, “Tell them how much I love them. Tell them how valuable they are to me. Tell them how I want them to dream again. How I want to breathe on them and make them make their own unique sound.” I cannot describe to you what took place from 12:00pm – 12:30pm on December 12, 2008 in that outreach center. But what I can say about it is, the people began to breathe again. It was beautiful. And my heart will forever feel and remember what happened today. It brings tears to my eyes. I pray that the words that were spoken today will not be forgotten. But that the words that God spoke today to each heart would be fully embraced and remembered and grow in fertile soil in each heart.
It’s good to breathe.
Live Life Loud!
~Sandy
