Long time no see everyone! Sorry I haven’t posted in… 3 months… hmmm. Anyway… even though I haven’t posted in a while, I won’t be afraid to get a little deep in this entry. If you take it as that or not is up to you but ah well, I think it’s pretty good.
Before we dive in I’ll update. As you can tell there is a common pattern while I am traveling. The churches are good and the host families are awesome. This is true. Don’t worry I’ll be sure to blog if I stay with a millionaire or a psycho, but God has been so good; so much better to me than I deserve. This summit we were in Oxford, Mississippi. This has probably been my favorite of this year. Not necessarily because my host family was awesome, they were, probably my favorite so far. But that’s not what made this summit awesome. Usually in Church situations the Staff is on board and the congregation isn’t or it’s the other way around. But this was a rare case. Everyone was on board! Young and old, everyone was impacted. As I’m writing this, the team and I are going through letters that we have church members write the team to see how they were impacted. They are so good. But overall, this summit was awesome.
Now what God has been teaching me…
Pride has been one of the first things that God pointed out in my life coming to Life Action. I thought I was making great strides in humility. Oh how I was proven wrong. In my quiet time a few weeks ago I asked God to continue to really dig and point out my problem areas. He pointed out my pride. I thought this was a lesson already learned. In my stupidity I said, “God, I have pride in my life just everyone else but I am not a ‘prideful’ person”. Over the next few days God showed me just how much of a “saint” I claimed to be. I think it is in these times God chuckles and says to Himself “Hahaha, dear child… Buckle Up!” God showed me in several instances just how prideful I was. It turns out, I was getting prideful in my humility… how does that even happen? In all of my joking of how the Bass players get no love, in m heart of hearts, I was serious. People come up all the time to singers, the guitar players, and occasionally the drummer, to tell them how much God has blessed them. No one gives love to the bass player. I would joke but after a while it really started to bug me. I started to see how a lot of what I did went unrecognized, went into little pity parties of “No body cares”, and instead of turning it all over to God and giving Him the glory. I turned it inward and let it fester in my heart and mind. Then the Shepherd, in all of His goodness, saw my predicament, thumped me a little, and got me back on the right track. I’m so thankful that my Father loves so much to correct me!
Towards the end of the thump session God was having with me, we had a team meeting. The Pastor of the church spoke. He went to 1 Samuel and talked about when David had to go carry cheese to his brothers. At this time, he was already anointed as king. But he was faithful to his father and he went. If he would’ve rebelled or had been too prideful to go, if he didn’t carry the cheese, he would’ve missed the chance to kill a giant. We all go through these times of carrying cheese. But it has to be done. Some of God’s greatest lessons are taught when we are in the low place… Amen! 1 Peter 5:6 – Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time.
God has instructed us to be the background, to display and glorify Him! He has told us to live on the edge of the spotlight, to be humble. I was reminded of this lesson right in the middle of playing a set. I wasn’t having a pride moment, just a “God reminder” moment. I was getting into the music, so I closed my eyes and lifted my head and started worshiping God. We were about to get to the bridge so I needed to know the chords. I opened my eyes and was instantly introduced to the brightness of the spotlight. My vision got splotchy, the same effect of looking into the sun. I couldn’t see the chords and I had to guess. Thankfully it turned out alright, I was able to fake it. But it reminded me of 3 things. 1. The spotlight belongs only to God. 2. When we get into the spotlight, it blinds us from what really matters. It distorts our vision and we loose sight on what we are focusing on, and 3. God knows all of this, and His call to humble ourselves isn’t totally to take ourselves out of the picture, it’s also put there to protect us. God knows we can’t handle it. Even if we think we can, it gets in our blood, our pride corrupts us, and in starts to destroy us. Pride is a poison.
As I close I want to encourage you, be humble. In the spotlight we find our shallow happiness but we end up blind. But Humble yourself under the shadow of His wings, and He will grow you in His joy. Stick in there brothers and sisters, we are not home yet!
TTFN
