I wrote recently in a post called “The Power of the Elements” about why I believe that using various elements in our worship and teaching is consistent with how God speaks and reveals himself in nature. I also talked about how these elements can be a powerful tool to opening many of our senses that would otherwise be un-stimulated and play an important role in revealing aspects of God that might otherwise be missed.
Recently I was preparing some of those elements for a worship service that our church was having. This service was extremely special because we had rented a large facility and the entire church body, which is normally spread out over three different services, was coming together for one service. Bringing over one thousand people together in a rented location can require a few more things to make it come together. As I was preparing for this I realized that there were some things I could do to really bring out the use of the elements we use in our services. I got excited about these possibilities and everything seemed to be coming together for the rehearsal the night before. Then that night it all broke loose. None of the video equipment was coming together and things were just not working for no reason that we could find. Then after all of that when we were about to leave one of the computers that was running the graphics for the event crashed. I was so tired and stressed I just laid on the ground trying to think it through. Then I pulled my other producer aside and we prayed and God spoke. He told me to chill! The things we were doing were great but I had lost the focus and reason for why I was doing them. I was doing them to help draw people to him. I had forgotten. I believe God broke one of the computers to bring things in perspective. To bring me back to my purpose, and it worked. I went home completely unstressed. I was just excited about what God would be doing the next day and excited about our entire body coming together to worship and seek him. Things went awesome and God moved!
It is easy to get caught up in doing things for God that we forget we are doing them for him. We get caught up in the task of our Christian walk and forget about just being in a relationship with a God that loves us so much. I hope I hold on to this little reminder for a long time. Praise God for how he speaks, so gently and so loving, if we are willing to listen.
