Worship Leader Devotional “Going Deeper”: Inside Out, Part 1
One of my all-time favorite holiday movies is “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. (Please don’t hold it against me. It’s a classic!) I am fully aware that we are nowhere near the holidays right now, but just bear with me for the sake of analogy.
There is one scene where everyone is gathered around the table for the big “Griswold Family Christmas” dinner. The turkey looks like it came straight off the cover of Southern Living magazine. It is absolutely pristine. It is plump and golden brown, a picture of perfection. Everyone awaits with excited taste buds as the head of the house, Clarke Griswold, raises a knife to carve it.
The moment that the knife hits it, however, it’s as if a pin popped a balloon. It bursts open to reveal a dry, brittle interior with virtually no substance other than some bones and a puff of steam. All the excitement and anticipation is instantly reduced to disappointment and disbelief, and horror for Cousin Eddie’s wife, Catherine, who cooked it.
How many of us live like this turkey? I’m not meaning to be funny or trite here. The question is valid. How many of us look amazing on the outside, doing the right things, looking the right way, saying the right words, leading amazing worship sets, praying eloquent prayers, writing powerful lyrics, etc., yet have an interior life that is empty, without substance and with no sure foundation?
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7, Jesus summed all He had just taught with these words:
“If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.” Matthew 7:25-27 Msg.
Our interior life is critical. We cannot stand up in front of people and lead them in worship every week when our interior life is without a sure foundation. We can keep up appearances only so long – but when the winds and rain come, and they will come…we won’t be able to keep it up. We will fall.
I read this statement recently and found it profound:
“‘You can’t shoot a cannon out of a canoe.’ Great power and calling necessitate a deep, broad, strong foundation of character to be wielded and executed well.” (Dan Wilt, “Essentials in Spiritual Formation: The Elemental Life,” www.worshiptraining.com, p. 10)
Oh yes, our calling as worship leaders is indeed great. It demands reverence and respect. It requires a strong foundation of character, integrity and authenticity. It must come from lives of substance, not fluff.
To be continued…
