For the past 4-5 months I’ve been leading worship at “The Gathering” [20's thing at my church]. Not a role I’m unfamiliar with, but not one that I’ve actually lead consistently before. Like anything, it’s a change that has really ended out changing me. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what makes a good or bad song, what the true meaning is, and why we sing at all to begin with.

The one thing I’ve realized through this process is that there is nothing I have to give to God that he doesn’t already have. When you think about giving a gift to a loved one, you’ll likely find a list of things they want or need…or maybe you’ll find something that you just think fits their personality. When it comes to God, there isn’t exactly a place to go for that gift. Which is where Psalm 116:12 comes in…it says this [from the Message]:

What can I give back to God
for the blessings He’s poured out on me?

You may be familiar with that passage, since Bono of U2 has been using it as a prelude to “Where the Streets Have No Name” in concert. The counter part to that passage I found in a song that we sang tonight at The Gathering called “I Will Not Forget You”. Here are the words of the chorus:

A grateful heart I give, A thankful prayer I pray,
A wild dance I dance before you
A loud song I sing, A huge bell I ring,
A life of praise I live before You

So, in that song is the answer- Get crazy with what you got. I know the church shutters at the word “dance”, but man, I just love the idea of truly dancing before God. Not for men to see, not for men to judge, but for the one that gives you breath, for the one that gives you a song, for the one that gives you rhythm.

Sing it, dance it, shout it, live it.

That’s what we can give back to God for the blessings he’s poured out on us.

I’ve realized that the longer my posts are, the less likely I am to actually publish. Therefore this will be brief.

I went to a wedding tonight that was very different from most. For starters, it wasn’t in a church and it wasn’t outside. No live music, no singing, no unity candle. But…it was still a wedding. In essence the young and nontraditional couple did things their way, but still held onto the real things that make a wedding. Loved ones were there, they exchanged rings, vows, and kisses and that was that.

I’ve been home for a few hours now and I just had an observation about it- that wedding was very symbolic of the coming generation. Give us what’s important, leave the rest, and we’ll figure it out.

I often think about the wall of books that set in my pastor’s office. It’s literally busting at the seams, there are books piled on the floor, others scattered on desks and furniture…almost all of them in someway related to the bible. [How is it that we can write volumes out of one simple book? Maybe that's a topic for another day.] When you crack open one of those books off of the shelf, what you’ll likely find is a story about a person or organization that defied the odds. They went against what was normal, what was expected, what was easy, and succeeded. I guess it’s only natural that our response to those stories is “oh, we’ll if they can do it, we can too!” So we come up with some contrived formula to make their ways fit our ways…

…but we’ve missed the point.

The point isn’t to try to copy what they’ve done, but rather to be inspired by it.

That’s what I loved about the wedding tonight and that’s what I love about my generation. We’re not going to do things your way just because. We’ll take what is necessary, what has meaning, and we’ll make it our own.

Give us what’s important, leave the rest, and we’ll figure it out.