It’s flat out embarrassing how I left off on this topic, WAY too long ago. I have a love hate relationship with blogging. I love the way it can give people a platform that wouldn’t have had one otherwise. But I hate the fact that one could put something out there and never follow it up! Especially the occasional bloggers like myself. When posting about this topic the first go around HERE, I felt all along that I needed a follow up. And I jumped off the blog band wagon and left the topic open ended without ever mentioning my own congregation.
SO, this follow up is for my own church family. Because I happen to be a part of a body of believers that does in fact SING! They sing SO loud. And I am thankful to be part of such a beautiful picture of what it may be like one day in heaven. I think part of the reason we sing so well is because it’s in our church’s blood so to speak, our DNA. The church has a rich history of hymn singers who just sing well, and it’s contagious! But a huge part of it comes strait from the top. Our pastor George Robertson continually harps on the fact that it is important to sing! He says it over and over. Not only does he say it, he DOES it! You can watch him up front really and truly singing. This is a unique gift that he gives to his congregation and I am so thankful for the support that he gives to the music ministries at our church. Praise the Lord!
****Watch the video below if you want to get a taste and be encouraged skip ahead to 36:42 and here it for yourself (they really get into it in later verses)! NOTE: This service is pretty special to us because a rare opportunity where Mike and I got to lead worship in the morning service by ourselves, Mike was serving as interim music director at the time. Usually Mike does music for the evening service so this was a special sunday to remember. Of unique note is the song we sing at 31:42 this is a song we wrote from Psalm 130 that we just recently got to record, but more on that later.
Lately I was sharing some struggles to a dear friend and she responded: “Allie! You know that does not define you, right?!” And I said: I hope so…I hope I can change. She looked me straight in the eye and said “Yes, you can change. There is hope!”
Praise God for people who speak truth! Do we do this enough? Really encourage and spit out wisdom upon our friends?! I hope I can be the kind of friend that can say “Don’t believe those lies dear friend here is the truth!”
I’ve been listening to a song over and over in my car so much so that my 3yr old now knows all the lyrics. It’s by J.J. Heller she talks about it’s meaning HERE if your interested. But the main point of the song that touches me the deepest is this line:
Perfection has a price
But I cannot afford to live that life
It always ends the same; a fight I never win
I struggle with perfection and I never really connected it with being a controlling person until recently. I spend a lot of worthless energies trying to control the people around me especially when I feel like things aren’t going the way I hoped. And I hold so tight to the things I think is best and don’t release them to the Lord. But releasing our fears on Him is what we are called to do.
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you!”
Psalm 55:2
Even within the bounds of my creativity my perfectionism effects me. Creative souls have a need to make, live, create ideas, physical things, pieces of art. And when we find ourselves in the dry spell when we aren’t creating it’s just deflating. And then perfection robs us from the opportunity to grow. If we would just put something out there that’s incomplete and offer that incompleteness to the Lord and ask him to use it, imagine what beautiful things we would experience! Too many times I have stayed quiet, held in my thoughts, kept in ideas because I felt it wasn’t perfect enough so why put it out there? But the Lord blesses our burnt offerings!!! He takes them and turns them into beauty! Praise him for I am fearfully and wonderfully made to create beauty and to magnify the Lord!
“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time
those who are being sanctified.”
Hebrews 10:14
** Thank you O Lord, that you do not leave me in my struggles but that you in your grace will bring me to a perfect completeness. When I struggle to make it on my own way may I look to you. And by looking to you, may I be encouraged to still create and still peruse beauty even when I feel it isn’t perfect. Bless my feeble attempts, grow them towards beauty that will glorify You. **
