Praise - and Worship

It's funny how these two words are used to describe how we do what we do on the weekends as a body of believers. We get together and give our praise and our worship to a Sovereign God, who is deserving of it all! But there's another aspect that we, as artists of various types, have to be keenly aware of on a daily basis.

That's the trap of praise for our worship.

Let's face it: as artists (of all kinds) we have bigger egos than most people do. We have a skill or ability that is special, and it draws attention to us as individuals. Praise for what we do is not all bad, hear me say that!

C. S. Lewis said it well: "Pleasure in being praised is not pride. The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, the saved soul to whom Christ says, 'Well done', are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted (and rightly wanted) to please." But our trouble comes when we move from "I have pleased Him" to "What a fine person I must be to have done it." (Excerpt from Holy Fools, by Mathew Woodley.)

God is pleased with us when we do the things He calls us to. He is the Father who wants to lovingly shower us with praise as much and as often as He can. He is deserving of our praise every day.

We play a set on Sunday and it 'rocks the house' for Jesus, or we have an art piece that jumps off the canvas and speaks volumes into someones life. When we're in the right relationship place with our Father, our response will be, "I have pleased Him." But there are times when we do get caught in the other box, when we lose sight of the right relationship and say, "What a fine person I must be to have done it." It's in those moments I want to run and hide from Dad because I know I've just let Him down. Folks, ANYONE who is an artist has had at least one time where they 'fell' into the trap of praise for the wrong reasons. That's no cause to abandon God. It is an opportunity to get back in touch with Him and ask Him to forgive so that we can draw even closer!

So how do you deal with the praise of the people when worship rocks, or art blows their mind? In my case, I have been responding to the 'worship was awesome' comment with a question: Did you encounter/experience God in worship today? I don't just mean the music, either. The WHOLE worship service, did you connect with God? Talk about turning the tables!

I'm not saying I don't want or need praise. I just want to make sure people here at FBC, Pocatello, know that I'm not doing this for them. My audience is a very small ONE. The rest of the people in the room are invited to join and that's it.

Artists, when you come to worship:

• Is your attitude the same as that of Christ? (Phil. 2:5)
• Have you dealt with the issues in your life that you have with others? (Mat. 5:23-24)
• Are you putting a higher value on your gift than you are the giver? (1 Cor. 12:4-7)

When you get your heart in the place that God desires for it to be, especially as an artist, you begin to see your gift(s) the way He intended for it/them to be seen. And you begin to have a new appreciation of worship, both in a corporate setting and in your personal time.

Here's hoping that your week gets 'wrecked' as you wrestle with God on this issue!

See ya in church...