Meaningless Words for Worship

I'm not your typical Christian.  I don't fit in with most popular sub-cultures of religion and that's ok, Jesus didn't either.  I try to see the beauty of God in everything.  Sometimes, it is a beautiful sunset, a smile on my 3 month old's face or just a beautiful picture.  Even though those things are definitely beautiful, the most beautiful things can sometimes be when God sheds a tear for us.  The recent shootings in Colorado, Chicago and New York or even this homeless lady named Boo who has lost the ashes of her deceased child.  God has such compassion for us and often we fail to recognize it and would rather categorize the bad situations of people's lives as God's justice.  God is just, but by receiving His grace and mercy every single day I came to the epiphany that God's compassion and love for us conquers all. I could go on all day about that, so I'll save that for a different time.

I began playing guitar at age 5.  By the age of 16, I played 5 different instruments.  I love music, it is always around me.  Having grown up in church, I surrendered to Christ at an early age, so church and music kind of went hand in hand.  The problem was my church was traditional. Very traditional.  So the music was old and seemed to have died in the chorus somewhere.  The choir sang with grim looks as the piano and organ played 4 songs with similar structures and I became bored out of my mind.  I would hear things such as "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!  Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!  Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.  This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long."  Typically, the only thing long was the faces of the people singing the song.  (I really do like this song)  Then, a teenager at church brought a cassette tape in of dcTalk and I loved it, it was exciting and fresh.  After that came a rapper by the name of T-Bone and it was cool, but I couldn't listen to it because it was rap and that wasn't sacred.  I was terribly confused because this guy was rapping about how his life was a mess and Jesus came in a took his life over and he had been made this new creation.  How could that be what they called secular?  On a flip side, I could listen to all the classic rock I wanted.  Skynard, Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Journey were my favorite.  I could listen to country music too, but I've never really been a fan of country music so I refrained.  After this experience, I would eventually be allowed tapes and then cds of christian artists at the discretion of my parents.  When I was 15, I joined a praise band and would travel around to churches to play and lead them with praise and worship music.  Some churches we played at didn't really like our style, we were either too loud or there was no organ.  Then, I met my wife and we began attending at the church she had grown up in and it was worse.  The pastor would stand and preach about heathen music and how if it had a beat it was of the devil.  Yeah, the evil red guy with a pitchfork and pointy tail.  I found his theology and theory flawed as all music has a beat. Otherwise, it would be just a jumbled up mess.

A couple of weeks ago, my family was having lunch with another family from our church and they had just been to a concert the night before.  He was talking about how great of a worship experience he had at that concert even though the band was not considered "sacred".  The concert was Mumford and Sons and I already love them, so I was interested in what he had to say.  He described how at church, worship feels forced and even sometimes hindered.  I couldn't have agreed more.  He was talking about how at the concert, he was just being himself and worshiping in a way that made sense.  At this point, I almost said "Amen".  As a musician, I have some great times of worship just playing something random and thinking of things God has done, or lamenting in a time of struggle even if what I'm playing isn't attached to a particular group of words or song.  I have to believe that we can worship God in ways that most people wouldn't particularly approve of when the focus is taken off ourselves and is placed solely on God.  Isn't that what worship is all about?  I have to ask, why all the worship wars when God is the one with the opinion and His stance is He wants all of us, surrendered to Himself from our wants?  Why do we try to cater to people when people are not who we are worshiping?  Or are they?  In a Mumford and Sons song, they ask: "Can you kneel before The King and say, ‘I’m clean’?" and later in the song they sing "Lead me to the truth, and I’ll follow you with my whole life."  That's pretty awesome worship lyrics if you ask me.  It is a way of people relating to God.  How many times have you struggled with feeling like you're too dirty and too far away from God for Him to save you or even hear you?  I know I have felt that way a lot.  Too many times in Christian music today, issues that we face daily are looked over while feelings we have deep inside of us go unanswered.  Another group I like which is the band Gungor tends to do a good job of relating to people and their struggles instead of just celebrating the high points of this spiritual journey.

I know if you have listened to Mumford and Sons though, you are probably thinking "they use a bad word in one of their songs."  Why yes they do.  Have you ever thought you blew it?  That thing you did and you're hiding or it became public probably made you think "I really f---ed it up this time".  Well, they just sang it.  A moment experienced by the listener is one of total surrender and confession.  It's a realization of the need for repentance.  I do love a statement made in another song later in the album.  It says "In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life.  Awake, my soul. You were made to meet your maker."

Worship to me is the total eviction of me and total focus on God and His mercy and grace.  It is a profound conversation between a creation and it's Creator regardless of context.

Luckily, God is so great I can come to Him with questions and He has answers.  I can come to Him hurting and He has love.  I can come to Him happy and we celebrate.  By sending your Son to die and to carry the sin weight of the world, I'm pretty sure God understands my questions and pains.  There is no need to hide that, especially in music.  Those meaningless words are secular and sacred worship.  What does that even mean to call something sacred and something secular?


I created this blog with a verse in mind.  Psalm 33:3 "Sing unto the Lord a new song.  Play skillfully with a loud noise."  God wants our creativity and He wants our praise.  He wants our music and apparently, He wants it to be noisy and loud!

Death Sentence

It's 62 A.D., Paul is sitting in a jail cell for following Jesus.  The Roman Empire is bearing down on Christians for following the Renegade rather than pledging allegiance to Caesar.  Paul has been stoned (by rocks of course), shipwrecked twice (one time a snake bit him when he came ashore), beaten multiple times, as well as, suffered many other attacks.  His faith does not waiver despite these indignities.  He was sold on Jesus.  When someone who has died shows up in front of you to confront your actions, that is a huge game changer.  Paul was sold on Jesus, even though the punishment was to die.  This group of people who had been taught by Paul and who considered Paul to be a father of the faith were concerned.  They had nothing, yet they gave all they had and then gave more.  Paul states in chapter 4 of Philippians that he had received their gift and realized the sacrifice necessary to send a gift of that magnitude.  As Jay DePoy, my pastor, stated "Every act of love increases your ability to love".  These Philippians loved Paul.  My point though, comes at the very end of this letter from Paul to the Philippians in a very peculiar couple of sentences.   

Philippians 4:21-23 "Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.  All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

Those brothers in verse 21 that Paul is speaking of are fellow inmates who were either imprisoned for their faith, or were converted by Paul upon his arrival.  They say "thank you".  The next verse is great.  "Especially those of Caesar's household."  They send a big "Hey".  Do you realize the implications of that?  These are people who are part of the empirical domain of Rome and they greet the Christians in Philippi.  The very people who were supposed to be persecuting and squashing this Jesus movement were now a part of it.  I imagine Nero's bed linens being changed and them being prayed over.  Or a feast for Nero's court, being blessed before it goes to be consumed.  I don't think they left tracts though, no tracts.  If theses folks were caught, I am sure that an example would be made of them as well as their families.  They didn't care.  They loved Jesus.

Is your faith strong enough to stand in the context of a death sentence?

An Event to Remember

In my current occupation as a firefighter, I have to see and do things that I typically do not wish to do.  On the rare occasion, I am able to see something great and even more rare, I am allowed the opportunity to just stand back and watch something amazing.  Today was one of those extremely rare occasions.  It's rush hour in Candler, and people are cranky.  I had the opportunity to park my 24 foot long big red truck in front of an intersection and prohibit people from passing.  It was anything but pretty for just a minute. "Just hold on, you will soon see." I told one lady who was very inquisitive as to the why I would not allow her to pass through.  Just peaking over the horizon, I saw the red an blue flashing lights and heard the faint sound of a siren yelp.  Everyone immediately stopped trying to find a way around my truck and began looking in the direction of the faint, yet familiar sound.  A Chief from the City of Asheville Fire Department, high ranking officers from both the North Carolina Highway Patrol, City of Asheville and Buncombe County Sheriff's Department as well as a motorcycle officer and other police cars filed through one by one.  They were immediately followed by motorcycles from The Patriot Guard and directly in the center of the 40-50 motorcycles came a white SUV.  Standing  out of the sunroof opening, breathing the air of home, stood Staff Sergeant Christopher Ollis from the United States Army to thank us.  After serving three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was home.  The procession was taking him to McCormick Field in Downtown Asheville not to enjoy "America's favorite pastime", but to throw ball with his son.  His son had won a chance to throw out the first pitch of the game tonight.  His dad would appear out of the dugout before the game dressed as the team's catcher.  This excited kid would throw ball with what he presumed to be the catcher of the Tourist baseball team and then when he threw the first pitch, with the ball safely secured in the catcher's mitt, the staff sergeant would remove the catcher's mask revealing to the ecstatic child that his father had returned home safely.  In the above picture, the staff sergeant embraces his children much like he caught the baseball, wrapping them up tightly, safe and secure.  This day, I will remember for a long time.   Welcome home Staff Sergeant Ollis.