P
PLeeD
Guest
How else you gonna explain it?
Waking at 9:40am I still had time to make it to church for the start of the worship music. But I didn’t slick my hair back and put some clothes on right away, so next thing I know it’s 9:45. Saturday had been rough so I wasn’t really in the mood to go anyway. Instead, I grabbed my guitar to start my own solo worship service.
After working through some old Hillsong and Chris Tomlin, I played some newer tunes. “What a Beautiful Name” is always full of the Spirit and that was good. Last I played this song “Reckless Love”, which really isn’t a proper hymn. Some people say it’s not even a proper thing to sing about God. The thing is, it’s always a powerful song. It was no different this morning.
All through singing those songs I had images going through my mind. Images of friends and family, and what they might be doing this morning. Some sitting in Church, some sitting at a campground, some out in boats. I thought of something I’d heard of a few times called “boat church”. That’s where people pull their boats together on a Sunday morning for a church service on the water. It occurred to me there should be “camp church” where people who are camping can do a similar thing on Sunday morning. I’m sure they have those, but I’ve never seen one.
As I finished the last song, I imagined me doing a “camp church” service. It would be just like I was doing now by myself, but do it where other people could come and join me. How cool would that be? Then I thought, well, I can sing and play, but I’m not a preacher. So what would happen when the music stops? What could I ever have to say?
At the end of “Reckless Love” I just started talking. It wasn’t really a prayer. I was talking through the lyrics to the songs I had just played. What they mean for us. What came out was good. It was the Gospel. All of the Gospel and nothing else. Some other time I’ll try and capture in writing what came out in spoken words.
By the end, when I stopped talking, my face was wet with tears. I stood up, put down my guitar, and walked to the kitchen to clean up. As I approached the sink I removed my eye glasses and placed them on the counter. I wet my face with water then dried it with a paper towel.
When I opened my eyes and looked out the window something wasn’t right. With no glasses on my vision is blurry, but not that blurry. The sun was shining brightly. The sky was blue and trees were green. Yet everything outside the window was silvery and sparkly.
I put on my glasses to see what was the matter. There, out of the clear blue sky, rain was falling. It wasn’t a soft sprinkle. It was a downpour. My first response was the audible words “are you kidding me?” I suppose I was asking God. It seemed like the day was being ruined by rain. Then it dawned on me that He was not kidding!
Waking at 9:40am I still had time to make it to church for the start of the worship music. But I didn’t slick my hair back and put some clothes on right away, so next thing I know it’s 9:45. Saturday had been rough so I wasn’t really in the mood to go anyway. Instead, I grabbed my guitar to start my own solo worship service.
After working through some old Hillsong and Chris Tomlin, I played some newer tunes. “What a Beautiful Name” is always full of the Spirit and that was good. Last I played this song “Reckless Love”, which really isn’t a proper hymn. Some people say it’s not even a proper thing to sing about God. The thing is, it’s always a powerful song. It was no different this morning.
All through singing those songs I had images going through my mind. Images of friends and family, and what they might be doing this morning. Some sitting in Church, some sitting at a campground, some out in boats. I thought of something I’d heard of a few times called “boat church”. That’s where people pull their boats together on a Sunday morning for a church service on the water. It occurred to me there should be “camp church” where people who are camping can do a similar thing on Sunday morning. I’m sure they have those, but I’ve never seen one.
As I finished the last song, I imagined me doing a “camp church” service. It would be just like I was doing now by myself, but do it where other people could come and join me. How cool would that be? Then I thought, well, I can sing and play, but I’m not a preacher. So what would happen when the music stops? What could I ever have to say?
At the end of “Reckless Love” I just started talking. It wasn’t really a prayer. I was talking through the lyrics to the songs I had just played. What they mean for us. What came out was good. It was the Gospel. All of the Gospel and nothing else. Some other time I’ll try and capture in writing what came out in spoken words.
By the end, when I stopped talking, my face was wet with tears. I stood up, put down my guitar, and walked to the kitchen to clean up. As I approached the sink I removed my eye glasses and placed them on the counter. I wet my face with water then dried it with a paper towel.
When I opened my eyes and looked out the window something wasn’t right. With no glasses on my vision is blurry, but not that blurry. The sun was shining brightly. The sky was blue and trees were green. Yet everything outside the window was silvery and sparkly.
I put on my glasses to see what was the matter. There, out of the clear blue sky, rain was falling. It wasn’t a soft sprinkle. It was a downpour. My first response was the audible words “are you kidding me?” I suppose I was asking God. It seemed like the day was being ruined by rain. Then it dawned on me that He was not kidding!