I just woke up from the ceremonial nap I take in between shifts at work everyday. Today I dreamed briefly that we were having music practice in a small stadium-seating auditorium that looked like it wasn’t in a church. It was just a practice run of “He Loves Us”, but the room was packed with people of all ages worshiping from their hearts. One minute I was holding a guitar, looking out from the stage at these people with a sense of satisfaction, success, and hope for them, and the next minute I inhaled deep and fast as clicked back into reality and woke up startled with drool on my face. I was suddenly somewhere in between where I wanted to be and where I actually was, with the images still fresh in my mind. Somewhere in there I had a few thoughts about the way these people were worshiping.
- The people were worshipping individually. Although there were a ton of people in the room, each one of them felt like they were before God on their own, bringing their own sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. No one was worshipping because every one else was feeling it.
- The people were worshiping out of relief and joy that God himself actually loved them, like the song says. It was genuine, raw, and so joyful. Do we sing the song that way?
- The people were of many different ages. There was no segregation. The music was loud, but no one was bothered, much less OFFENDED like at my church. If volume was an issue to anyone, it certainly wasn’t a big enough issue to stop worshiping and be irritated. It was God’s worship, so what issues were there? What issues could there have been? It was God we were worshiping. I wasn’t stressed about my tone or the monitor level or the drummer’s tempo or the people’s reaction. It was WORSHIP. Nothing short. If there were imperfections, nobody cared because they were singing “We are his portion and he is our prize” and it was TRUE, and that was AMAZING.
- The people were there during the practice. It wasn’t during the 30 minute designated worship time. They all showed up because there were people getting together to practice worshiping. This was apparently a good enough reason to come and worship with them. Imagine if people were so pumped to worship God that they would show up to practice just to get some more. Not just crazy church lady with tambourines and flags, but the majority of the congregation?
- I was filled with hope. Because as many people as were there, there were that many people who I KNEW were kingdom bound and enthralled to think about the way that He loves us. I was happy for them because I KNEW they didn’t have time to maintain their regrets! Wish I was like that.
- We were definitely not in a church. That’s neat. It felt like some public event center or something. Means the event was too big for someone’s church. That or the event wasn’t put on by a church. How nice that we don’t have to go to the temple anymore to worship.
