of coffee, God, and us

On Worship (creative arts insert for Meadowland Community Church annual meeting)

Three women sat in a coffee house wondering what to drink.  You may find that odd considering where they were.  One woman shared your sentiments, but she was alone in her simplicity of thought.  Her closest friend, sitting on her right, was used to gourmet lattes, toppings, and condiments all mixed up just right.  Her friends would attest that without that special brew she would be an unbearable wretch.  Of course they all laugh about it as they secretly pity her husband who is the unwitting victim of her wretchedness.  Across the table was a woman she had known for several years, but never really taken the time to really get to know her.  She found her to be a bit of an annoyance as she was so undecisive.  She was the one who would always make the waiter come back 5 times, and on the 5^th time would volunteer to go last because ‘she would probably know by then’.  Sitting in this coffee house was no different.  Somehow she would make picking coffee a stressful chore.  She, on the other hand knew exactly what she wanted, coffee.  She walked up to the counter, and said “just give me coffee”.  Confused, the barista began to question her decision.  He said, hang on I’ll have to make some.  We don’t get many orders for just coffee.  He walked to the back counter past all of the fancy dispensers and crèmes and began to brew the coffee.  When he had finished, he poured it in a cup, and served her.  She sat in the booth, warmed her hands on the outside of the cup, and allowed the warmth and the aroma of ‘coffee’ to envelope her senses.  She was pleased.

We serve this body of believers by leading the way into the throne room of God’s presence every Sunday morning.  We aren’t a group of highly skilled musicians who are committed to pleasing those we are leading.  We are a group of broken men and women who have come together, made whole through the saving grace of our Savior, unified through His Spirit, who long to worship and declare His worth.  God is pleased with the hearts of His worshippers (all of us).  He just wants some coffee.  Keep it simple and pure, and lay it before His feet in service to your King.

There have been several opportunities this year for us to look at one another and scratch our heads in confusion.  It is undeniable that God has been at work in our leadership, in our ministry teams, and in each one of us.  He has been molding and shaping our hearts to serve and please Him and Him alone.  He longs for our pure dependence and leaning on His strong arms. 

Will you ‘go limp’ in the arms of your Savior year?  Will you embrace the pain and hurt that is brought on by your needs, your failures, your inadequacies, and failed expectations?  When we embrace our brokenness, and see ourselves for who we are – fragile people; we will feel and experience the embrace of Christ.  We will respond by lifting up His name, worshipping Him in joyful praise for all that He is.  We will communicate to a hurting and broken world, the worth and splendor that is our Savior.  He will be pleased.

May you join us in this journey of seeking God’s face and dependence on His grace.

John Barnett and Meadowland’s team of worship leaders

 

just sit with it

If you are feeling sad, then feel the sorrow.  If you are feeling angry, then feel the anger.  Don’t deny the feelings that are trying to surface.  Sometimes they don’t make sense right away, or you realize that they are ridiculous.  Feel it anyway.  We will only understand the depths of our heart when we allow the emotions that it has to offer to swell over.  If something is hurt then seek to find it’s healing through grief or comfort or just making it right with the other person.

Be angry but do not sin, and don’t let the sun go down on your anger.  Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth.  Be still – just sit with it.

When appropriate – spank your inner child.  Sometimes it could use a gooding spanking. =)

to be broken and complete

So many times I find myself in situations that I cannot control or subjected to rules, expectations or consequences that I fall short of embracing as appropriate.  It comes in so many forms, and at the hands of many different people including myself.  Sometimes it is intentional, but most times I think it’s just life. 

It’s when I embrace the truth of who I am that I come face to face with a hard realization.  I am incapable.  As a man, as a husband, as a father, as a manager, as an employee, as a worship leader, as a __________.  I do not have it within to me to always prevail and be successful.  I fail.  Obstacles are too high, the weight is too heavy.  I am overwhelmed with a feeling of hopelessness and loss.  My mind and heart feels like it is spinning and longing desperately for solid footing.  My heart was never intended to bear the weight of tragedy and failed expectations.  I submit to the weight and allow it to crush me.  I know that I am in that place when my anger, frustrations and fears are replaced by tears brought on by embracing the hurt or the inadequacy. 

The arms of my Savior pick me up and I hear Him whisper, “It’s ok.  I’ve got you.  You are safe.”  The weight is lifted off of my heart, and I experience the fullness of Christ in my life.  His heart is intended to bear the weight.  He is capable.  In Christ, my failures and inadequacies find their rest.  I am complete.  The irony of a man, is that true strength is found in true weakness.  It is only when I embrace my brokeness that I am able to experience the fullness and completeness of my Savior.  My heart rejoices with the truth that I am loved, and that I am held.  I have no need of fear.  My heart is free to love.

As I’ve looked back at the hurt that I have caused, I’ve told my sons that I want them to be better than me.  As their father, one thing that plagues my heart is the heartache that awaits my children as they grow older.  I know that while my arms will be strong to carry them, they won’t be strong enough.  In the end, I am not what they need.  They will need the arms of my Savior.  I will be the man in their lives showing them the way.

tear stained stone

This is a post that I started over a year ago, and only got so far as the title.   This reminds me of a time in my life that felt far from God.  Unfortunately, those times seem more prominent than others.  God brought me face to face with the condition of my heart.  I had received some criticism regarding cavalier comments I’ve made that have come across as arrogant or otherwise.  The things that I said ended up being hurtful instead of my words lifting others up.  That brought back floods of memories for me.  I was mainly apalled by things that I’ve said to my wife.  She would repeat the things that I had said, and then she would have to convince me that I said it.  I had a hard time accepting that I would actually say those things.  Why was I so hurtful?  Why am I still? 

The source of this post came when I was driving to work one morning.  I was retracing my conversations and tears began to form as I thought about all of the hurt that I have caused to so many people over the years, especially to my wife.  I pictured those tears falling on a stone crusted heart.  The tears dried on the stone as permanent imprints of people’s pain, pain that I had caused. 

I read a quote the other day.  It’s a prayer – “May my heart be broken with the things that break your heart”

Regardless of what I acheive or accomplish in this life, more than anything I want to leave this world known as a man of love, integrity and a broken heart that could only survive by resting soley in the arms of his Savior.  I’m not that man today, but with every day and every trial I am getting closer.

I feel like I have been broken by so many things.  I have come face to face with so many inadequacies in myself.  My first resolve is to anger and frustration and fear.  My ultimate resolve is always to fall, and embrace the pain of brokeness knowing that I can only experience the fullness of Christ when I am broken.  God is faithful to desolve the tear stained stone that is my heart until it beats as His. 

I love my wife, and I love my children.  I know that I do not deserve them.  I know that they deserve better than me.  They are evidence of God’s grace in my life.  I never have to look any further than the cross and my home.

How deep can a stream really be?

This morning in church we did a song by Kutless called “All Who are Thirsty”.  The song is a beautiful, and does have an encouraging message, but it seem a bit off…. 

All who are thirsty… All who are weak… Come to the fountain… Dip your heart in the stream of life… Let the pain and the sorrow… be washed away… in the waves of His mercy… As deep cries out to deep

We have several water references here – The fountain becomes a stream that has waves (probably crashing because they are powerful enough to wash away), and then there’s the deep.  We could wax poetic on this all day, but recognizing the message, do the lyrics really support it or are they just cleverly assembled cliches?

So two questions – 

1) What does deep cries out to deep actually mean?  I’ve heard it in an Amy Grant or Gary Chapman song several years ago, and I didn’t know what it meant then?  Is that scripture or is that something that someone said one day, and then everyone ran with it, like Rufus.

2) How deep can a stream really be? and if it is deep, then how do two deeps call eachother? would it be considered long distance? 

MUST READ COMMENT STRING FOR THE RESULTS….