Tales of a Secret Rockstar

I was on the Island with Resonate this weekend. It was a fun trip, and some crazy stuff happened (like getting lost in Comox). Here's the craziest one though. On Saturday night we all went to see the new Bond movie in Courtenay. We got there at 6:50 for the 6:50 show, and it was sold out. So we bought our tickets for the 9:10 show. We then went to pass some time at the local mall, which was mostly closed except for the London Drugs store. We were in there for a while, and then we found a bench in the mall area to sit on. We were sitting there, when suddenly I heard a voice from my pocket. "Sir," she said, "are you there? Are you alright?" I pulled out my phone, curious as to why I was hearing a voice, and looked at the screen. It was indeed a call, and the number on the screen said 9113. I had accidentally dialed 911! I have no idea how, but my phone dialed 911 in my pocket! I panicked and hung up without saying anything. But then the group convinced me that I should call them back, just in case they were sending someone out to the mall to check up on a dropped 911 call. So I called them back, and the guy I was talking to asked me, "How could you have accidentally dialed 911?" And I said, "I don't know, I just suddenly heard voices in my pocket!"
What an adventure.

They just tend to build up on you.

I'm in the process of finishing a lot of little details before I go off to the Island this weekend for a Resonate trip. I'm looking forward to it. November has this crazy way of overwhelming you with little things, and then sneaking up on you with the big things. At least my Novembers are like that. I always wonder what my ministry would look like if I had lots of time to devote myself to contemplation and prayer. In my current situation, I tend to devote myself to emails, tours, and hanging out with people. Which is also great. But I sometimes wonder if I need to create more space for God to speak in my life.

Of course, if I had all the time I wanted to contemplate and pray, would I do it?

I heard this worship song at church on Sunday, and the chorus began like this:

"Here I am, worshipping you. With all I am, worshiping you."

And I thought to myself, "This is one of the most bizarre experiences I've ever had. I was literally singing to God about how I was worshiping him! It just seemed so bizarre to me that we would remind God about the fact that we were there worshipping Him. Maybe? Anyone? I know I tend to be more cerebral about these things than some people, but I just thought that this particular song went over the line from worshipping God to worshipping our experience of God. The entire focus of the chorus was on what I was doing to worship God, rather than the God who I was worshipping. It just really made me think about our worship. And that's kind of funny, because anyone who has been through Bible College has struggled with the issue of worship music. It's one of the things the teachers like to throw at you right away, just to mess with your head a little. I've been through it time and again. And I think I tend to swing from one side to the other on the issue of "what worship music is acceptable in church?"

I just wonder if we're forgetting to worship God in our music. We spend so much time singing about us that we miss who God is. I wonder what would happen if our songs were more about who God is. What if we sang some Psalms? Some of the lyrics in Revelation are amazing. Would we sense God's presence more if we stopped worrying about "feeling it" so much? I guess the question I'm asking myself is this:

Is our Pentecostal worship so self-absorbed that we're actually missing the experience of God that we sing about so much?