Lent…

Growing up (in the church, I might add) I had never heard of this season.  Not once.  I remember the first time I ever heard of it - and of someone giving something up for it.  I was a sophmore in college - yeah, like I said, I had never heard of it.

So what is the big deal about this thing called Lent?

Well, recent study has shown me that there actually is a big deal about it… and it all comes down to the heart.

The season of Lent is a season of preparation - preparing your heart and mind for Easter.  The 40 day period was chosen (in part) due to the 40 day period that Jesus spent in the desert before beginning His earthly ministry.  There are also other periods of preperation lasting 40 days in the Bible - it rained for 40 days & 40 nights and created a flood to cleanse the world, Moses stayed on the mountain of God 40 days, the spies were sent into the promised land for 40 days, and Elijah travelled 40 days to reach the cave where he had his vision, just to name a few.

So how do we use this time?  We pray - or we should.  It is a time to truly look at our lives and see if there is anything holding us back from the best that God has for us.  The things that people “give up for Lent” are (usually) not bad things - they are good things, however they may find that these things hold them back from the better and best that God wants for them.  De-cluttering our lives and minds from these things and devoting extra time to prayer helps us to see this.

So why fasting?

Well, fasting is very biblical.  Jesus said “When you fast…” not “if”.  God calls us to fast on occasion to draw our focus to Him.  Again, removing something from our lives can help us have a greater appreciation for it when it returns.  Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day of fasting, as are the 6 Fridays in Lent.  Sundays, however, are excluded from Lent, as they are a day of celebration for what God has done, namely conquering the grave and bringing us salvation.

This season helps re-align our focus - feeling the pangs of hunger and not allowing yourself to partake of something you enjoy for a short season helps us to focus in on our need - our need for God’s grace and the salvation that Jesus brought through the cross.

Taking the time that you would usually spend eating or watching tv or whatever your “thing” is that you give up for a season is beneficial in that you will draw closer to God - and that is never a bad thing!

I have never taken part in Lent before, however this year I will be.  I will have days that I fast, days that I spend that extra time in prayer, and I will be giving up something that is fun - but not a necessity to life.  And I will be spending that 20-30 minutes a day (or longer) that I used to spend on that and giving it to God.  After all, I’m sure He has a better use for it that I was putting it to!

I’m looking forward to this time - to the opportunity to walk through a period of suffering with Jesus, to draw closer to Him, and to more deeply appreciate the celebration of Easter.

How about you?  Is Lent a part of your life?  If not, is it something you have ever considered?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yep, it’s that gushy, pink-and-red holiday that’s all about luuuv.  ugh.  *grin*

But on a happier note, we had a great morning at Falcon Ridge Fellowship today!  We led All Because of Jesus for the third week, and we debuted another new song today - one that I was really excited about.

We had almost everyone there this morning - we were missing our usual bass player, but David switched over and played today so the sound was great.  The best part though?  I got to sit in the congregation and take communion with Eric… and that hasn’t happened in a looooooong time.

Anywho, here’s the setlist:

• Rain It Down [G] Carlos Whittaker
• All Because Of Jesus [G] Steve Fee
  
• Glorious [Bb] Brenton Brown/Paul Baloche
• You Never Let Go [F] Matt Redman/Beth Redman
• kids storytime
• Glorious [G] Chris Tomlin/Jesse Reeves…
• announcements
• Message
• You Gave Your Life Away [E] Kathryn Scott / Paul Baloche
• Communion message
• My Chains Are Gone - chorus only

We introduced @loswhit’s new single Rain It Down this morning, and the band was sooooo excited to do it.  It is such a fun song to sing and play, and (hopefully) that enthusiasm was contagious.  I had posted on my FB age a couple of weeks ago that we would be doing it & everyone should download it, and (fortunately) a few had done that and already knew it.  However since I know that a few will be asking where to find it I’m posting the link again - if you want to download it, head over to iTunes here.

All Because of Jesus is a great tune too, and we have a lot of fun with it.  They play it quite a bit on the local christian station up here, so most people already knew it - helpul when your teaching something new. It’s great to see most of the congregation singing along when you’ve recently introduced a song to them.   Baloche’s Glorious is like that too - people connected with that one almost immediately, and it quickly became one of the favorite songs.  I think Glorious and Here I am, Send Me are our two most requested songs.  Having both Glorious’s on the list today was a little confusing, but it worked out great.

Well, I’m off - Eric is taking me shopping for something sparkly and we have to drop the girls off at a friend’s first, (well, after we finish grouting the rest of the tile - soooooo romantic!)  so I’ll catch you later!

As always, this is part of the Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com - check it out!

So, how was your service this weekend?  Any songs you loved?  Any you loved, well, not so much?

Ever have one of those sets where you just can’t not worship?  It was like that for me yesterday.  1 brand new song, and 3 songs that we hadn’t done for a while but were great old friends.  You know, the kind that you don’t have to worry about where you go next because you know the song so well that it just comes out.

And I almost missed it.

M has had some kind of cold/flu bug for about 10 days now and I seem to have caught it on Friday night.  I spent Saturday in bed (as much as I could anyway) so that I would be abe to make it to church this weekend.  And I did make it, but it was rather touch-and-go for a bit.  The biggest problem was the sore throat that came & went.  It was gone Sunday morning, but the voice still wasn’t all there.

BUT

I am so thankful for the truth on the lyrics we sang in Baloche’s Hosanna - “when we see You, we find strength to face the day.  And in Your presence all our fears are washed away”  That was so true for me yesterday!  He gave me the strength to face the day yesterday, and I am so thankful!

Anywho, here’s the list:

• All Because Of Jesus [F]
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• It Is You [A]
• Enough [F]
• kids story
• Love The Lord [D]
• message
• Lord You Have My Heart [D]
• Communion
• Doxology

All Because Of Jesus was brand new for us this weekend, but people were joining in pretty quickly.  We did it in F, however the verse was still a bit low for me (since I was sick).  I’m thinking about trying it out in G next week… or maybe A.  We’ll see how high I can convince them to go

Chris ended up leading It Is You & Enough - which was great because that meant I got to sing harmony - yay!  We haven’t done either of those songs in months and I really missed them.  It was just a morning of truly singing out praises to God and truths about Him & sending them back to Him.

We stayed very simple on Lord You Have My Heart - just 2 vocals, an acoustic and a djembe.  We sang it over the congregation while the bread and grape juice were passed out for communion and asked people to take the time to prepare their hearts and minds for the Lord’s Table.  Then Wayne shared a message about taking in Jesus’ flesh & blood into our bodies as a symbol of taking Him into ourselves.  It was pretty powerful.

After the service the girls decided that they were going to a friend’s house - and then informed all 4 parents involved!  It’s always fun when they try to do that.  Fortunately for them it worked this time!  They left with their friend and Eric & I actually got to have a date!  Honestly it was almost surreal.  He’s been out of town or pulling 14-hour days at the sales meeting for 2 weeks now, so we haven’t even seen each other at all except for last Tuesday evening.  It was so nice to get to go to lunch just with him.  We really need to do that more often…

All in all it was a great weekend - despite being sick.  Today, however, this bug seems to have pulled in the reserves and in attacking again.  Oh well, not much going on now

How was your service?

*This is part of the Sunday Setlist Bloggy Carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com - see what songs are being led all over the world!

I was bouncing around the blog-o-sphere tonight and happened upon a post that Carlos Whittaker did a while back asking 2 simple questions…

• When does a worship leader really botch it for you?
• What is the biggest gripe you have about something a Sunday worship leader does?

There were LOTS of responses - most of them contradicting each other, ironically - but one of them encapsulated it for me.  A gent named Rick tossed this comment into the mix, and I wanted to share it.  I also want to ponder it myself for a bit.  Here is what he said:

I hate it when my worship leader…
-has to remind Christians that corporate worship is a mandate from God.

-has to risk being a cheerleader because the people that claim to love God exhibit no sense of joy when singing about Him.

-has to burn the first song because 75% of the congregation is late, talking in the lobby, perfecting their coffee, or sleep walking instead of enthusiastically taking advantage of celebrating our Savior with like-hearted people.

-has to endure darts of personal preference from hundreds of individuals who have lost sight of what Sunday worship time is prescribed by God to be.

-is treated as a thoughtless hire rather than a divinely appointed servant.

-is expected to never get nervous but be humble,
execute notes and lyrics without flaw while avoiding performance and being vulnerable,
make no effort to teach or guide but don’t be a juke box, and stay traditional and contemporary,
all while burying, birthing and resurrecting songs appropriately.

I’m sure that’s easy to do!

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This also comes on the heels of seeing one of my fellow worship leading mom’s getting roasted by a “friend” on her facebook wall because she gets “paid too much just to sing on sundays, most people volenteer their time for that.”

Is this really where the Modern Church has gotten to?  Are we really that consumer-minded?  Are we that angry and judgemental?

The true question should be “what is it that helps draw you into the presence of God?” or “is there a way that your local worship leader can help you shake off the baggage you brought with you so that you can truly worship God?”

As a worship leader, these are the questions that I would love to have answered!  I want to know if there is something that I can do to help you enter the throne room of your Saviour and King.  How can I help you feel released?  How can I get out of your way and create an environment where there isn’t anything to distract you from living out your sacrifice of praise of an Almighty God?

Don’t get me wrong - I totally get why Carlos asked the questions, and I do appreciate some of the responses.  There are things that I do that would drive some of his readers insane (and I’ll be working on some of them - but not all of them!).

To be the person that God has called to stand up in front of His church and lead them is a daunting task.  To be the person that is responsible for getting a list of songs together that:

1. The congregation knows
2. Relates to the pastor’s message
3. The band plays/sings well
4. Has a natural “flow”

well, that is a hard thing some weeks!  And we do it every. single. week.

Yes, there are times that it all comes together in such an amazing way that there is no doubt that God had His hand in it… but there are also weeks that I look at the passage we will be studying (and the supporting passages) and I draw a huge blank for days.

Then you add in the hours of practice, set-up & tear down, the creating of charts (in multiple keys), the time spend seaking out new music to add to your church’s repitoire, building relationships with the members of the band and making sure they are growing spiritually… and the list goes on and on.  Oh, and having the guts to get up in front of you each week and blowing it as often as not (even when you may never know) - mixing up words or chord progressions or sounding like an idiot when you lose your train of thought.

I’m human.  Your worship leader, worship pastor, director of music, etc - they are only human too.  We fail, we get nervous, we have things that come up in our lives that reduce the time we have to prepare. The unexpected happens.

BUT

We serve a God that gives each of us a second chance - you, me and even your worship leader.

Next time your worship leader does or says something that bugs you - and I’m sure they will - take a step back and try to see the why in it.  Why does it bug you?  Is it something that needs to be addressed spiritually or theologically?  Is there something that hints at hipocracy in their lives?  Or are you just grumpy today?

Are we coming to church to be entertained, or are we coming to worship the Saviour of our souls in unity and community with a body of believers?

Just some things to think about.

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**I’m not saying that ALL churches are this way, I’m just making a generalization based on the fact that nearly 200 people chimed in and over 80% of the comments had a negative slant.  Help us out - tell us how we can help rather than throw us under the bus. If you really want to see the negativity (from both sides, unfortunately,) just google “I hate when my worship leader” - ugh.

** 2nd disclaimer - I’m not trying to cast angry comments back, but rather to help the general church-attendee to see that there may be more to it than meets the eye.  I really do want comments and feedback - I want to help make your corporate worship experience as seemless and God-honoring as I can!  I also want you and I to be able to worship together, side by side.  After all, that is the point of corporate worship!

Yes, I know, I’ve been missing doing these… but I have a good excuse!  I’ve had a houseful of people for a bit…

Oh, and as always, this is part of Fred’s Sunday setlist carnival - see what songs are being sung around the world!

So… last week was our first week back in the little white church, and we are once again getting used to the notion that we don’t have a sound system.  That’s fun to work around, but it does seem to be working pretty well.

Onto da songs…

• Happy Day
• Trading my Sorrows
• Reign In Us (Starfield)
• Only You
• kids storytime
• Counting On God
• announcements
• message - “What is THAT???”
• How Great Thou Art - chorus

The message was from Exodus 16:1-16 - the Israelites are getting hungry and are starting to whine… but God provides!  We opened with Happy Day, and after working on it wuite a bit at practice, it worked much better this week!  Sam has been leading it and is doing a GREAT job.  We chopped some of it out this week too, and made it a little easier to follow.

Trading My Sorrows is not one of my favorite songs, but many people really seemed to connect with it this morning.  we changed it around a bit from the last time we sang it too - it ended up being a little longer but I think it worked.

Reign In Us is one of those songs that I just love - it is sung to God, and is completely about surrender (which ended up working with the message perfectly - I love it when God does that!)  We followed that up with Only You (which I love) and the only drawback to it was that I had to sing lead instead of harmony.

As usual, the kids message was spot on - I really love how Faith Weavers works everything together for all ages.  Jennifer & the other ladies have done a great job of putting together that part of the service.  And It was the 3rd week for Counting On God (with a break last week) and I think everyone is starting to get it.  It’s a very energetic song - but it’s fun.

I will post a link to the sermon when it’s live - Pastor Chris did a great job this week (even if he did make everyone hungry… again)

Well, I’m off to my SIL’s birthday, so I’m keeping it a little shorter this week.  How did your Sunday morning go?

Once again, Tam is inspiring a blog post.  Stop it!  Ha!  Just kidding.  I hope you are enjoying the slightly more prolific me that has taken over this week (who am I kidding… today!)

First - go read this post - then come back here and see where it got me.

Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Take your time.

This window will stay open for you, patiently waiting for your return.

You back?  Good.  Let’s dig in.

The big question?

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Yep.  That is the question I have for all of us.  What does the word make you think of?  How does it affect (or effect) your life?

Why do I ask this?  Because it needs to affect your life.  I needs to be the cause of the effect of God on your life.  It needs to be in the air that you breathe, the food that you eat.  In the actions and reactions of your day.

Why?

Because the painful truth is that we all worship something every second of every minute of every day.  Yep.  We are creatures that were created to worship (notice I didn’t say “for worship” - we don’t deserve to be worshiped!)

What are you worshiping today?

• yourself
• your spouse
• your kids
• your job
• your car
• your computer/online life
• your wii/nintendo/x-box
• etc
• etc
• etc

The list of the things that we worship goes on and on and on and on.  Truth is, we have idols, and lots of them.  Just because they aren’t carved out of wood or stone and made to look like a little person or animal doesn’t make them any less of an idol.  The idols we worship in place of God are the things to which we devote our time, energy and money.

And trust me when I tell you that I’m talking to myself as much as anyone else!  My flesh considers itself a demi-god.  Worthy of worship.  As having a worth-ship, a high value.  Others should sacrifice for me, right?  For my wants and needs and desires!

NOT!

My kids… yep, they are little gods in their eyes too.  Humanity is so full of itself!  Look at any 2 year old, and you will see a creature that seeks to fulfill it’s own desires at (almost) every turn.  As a mom, I can easily make them into idols too… catering to their wishes and sacrificing to them.  Yes, I should sacrifice for them, but not to them.

So, back to our question.  What is worship?

It is the act of sacrificing time, money, energy and desire for something that we have deemed valuable enough to be worth it.  That’s one way of putting it.  There are others too, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

So, are you worshiping the right thing?  The right Being?

Are you devoting your time, money, energy and desire to God, or creator?  Or are you sacrificing those things that belong to Him in preference of something else?

Is He worthy of your life?  After all, He gave His for you.

I know, I’m late.  But I have a good excuse!  We drove south to a friends house and spent the afternoon at the park playing Catan.  Quite fun, even if we were freezing in the 75 degree weather… yes, I was cold and it was 75F outside.  Disclaimer: we were sitting in a very shady grove surrounded by big trees with a breeze blowing and we were all in tanks tops and shorts.  Brrr!  But I won, by 2 points if I recall.

So, back to the service… I get so easily distracted!

The songs:

• Sing, Sing, Sing [G]
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• O Worship The King [F]
• kids message
• Here I Am to Worship [E]
• announcements
• message “Why Not Take All Of Me”
• Made To Worship [F]
• Take My Life [D]
• communion message
• Lead Me To The Cross [E]
• taking the Lord’s Supper
• Reign In Us [F]

Yep, that’s a LOT of songs!  The message was on worship, and was taken from the passage in 2 Samuel 6 where King David attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem (resulting in a death) - and then gets it right and is able to bring it.  We moved a couple of songs to the end of the message so that people could get some “practical application” before they left, and my hope is that they left with the knowledge that worship is so much more than a few songs sung on a Sunday morning!  I have to admit that I was wishing Pastor Chris had picked a different title - I kept having the old jazz chart “All Of Me” going through my head, and it was annoying.  (looooong story having to do with my college jazz band and our honeymoon)

Sing Sing Sing was a new one today, and it went over really well… well, other than me starting the repeat of verse 1 with the words of verse 2… oops!  Fortunately I caught it on about the 3rd word, so I saved it pretty quickly.  I think I like it, and I think that a decent enough group of people knew it that it will catch on pretty quickly.  That and the fact that it repeats the same thing A LOT.  Repetition is a good thing when you are trying to learn something!

I read Luke 19:37-40 at this point to remind all of us why we worship God - first, we worship Him because He is worthy and deserving of our praise and adoration, and second because if we don’t do it the earth will have to!  It’s a good reminder.

That flowed wonderfully into Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) which is a fav of our church.  We followed that with O Worship The King (which I kept blanking out on the words for… oy!) and then had the kids come up early for their message.

For the kids song we sang Here I Am to Worship, and it was cool to see even the little ones getting into singing and clapping and doing the hand motions for it.  I still struggle with the bridge, because I think we will see the true cost of our sin one day… but other than that I love the song.

The message should be live tomorrow if you’re interested (and it was a pretty good one).  You can check it out here.

The band came back up and we led Made To Worship (a new one for me) and Take My Life (as sung by Chris Tomlin & Christy Nockles).  It was pretty powerful.  Take My Life is a song that can go on and on and on if you have the time for it… which I was really wishing we had this morning!

Jim shared a story that made communion a little easier for the kids to understand (since they were back in with us this morning) The story was about 2 boys that were friends, and one of them got sick and died.  He asked his friends to continue to celebrate his birthday even after he was gone, and to look forward to the day that they would all be together again.  I saw a few people wiping teary eyes by the end of it (I’ll even admit that it moved me, cold heart that I have

We led Lead Me To The Cross while the elements were passed out (which I bumped to E this week - SO much easier to sing!) and then Jim prayed over the bread and juice and took it together.

Since it was already 11:33, we just did the 2nd bridge and chorus of Reign In Us (you know, the part that they chop off when it’s played on the radio… grrr) and sent everyone out with that.

It was a good day.

People were entering in - lifting their hands, focusing on God rather than each other, and lifting their voices to God.  It was another of those days that I find it harder to “lead” because I just want to worship.  I’m still trying to find that balance… and I suspect that it will take a long time to get there!  I try to remember to make eye contact with those that seem to like that… but I’d much rather be in the background just singing to God than in the front.

Some thoughts on worship, since we are on the topic.

We serve a holy God… a God that deserves everything that we are!  He created us to worship Him, and whether we choose Him as our object of worship or not, we will worship something.  It is what we were created to do.  Whatever we give our time, energy and money to is what we worship… there is a saying that you can tell what someone worships by looking at their bank account.  You can also tell by watching how they live out their lives.

I know that I have been guilty lately of letting other things take that place in my life, and I haven’t been living out my life as an act of worship every day.  Just take a look at my living room to see the lack of excellence there!  Actually, don’t.  It’s embarrassing.

At our home group this week we were asked the following question:  What is an idol in your life?  Even though Eric laughed at the truth in it, I had to admit that the internet can at times become an idol rather than a tool.  There are days that begin and end with me sitting here with the laptop open and running, facebook or twitter going strong.  The internet is NOT supposed to be the beginning and the end in my life, God is!  He is the alpha and omega, but I have allowed something else to take that position from time to time.  That realization came on Friday as I was leaving a meeting with Pastor Chris.  Oy!  How easy it is to allow other things take too much of our precious time!

So, I will be working on that.

As much as I will miss constant updates of some new-found friends and acquaintances I have found on twitter and facebook, I will not be allowing myself to spend quite as much time there.  I need to nip this in the bud (so to speak) before it completely takes over my life!  Oh, and I really need to get the house picked up.  No, really.  I have family coming for a visit next month, and I’m sure they would appreciate sleeping on a futon that isn’t piled high with junk and having a shower that’s clean and shiny to use.  And a bathroom that isn’t full of piled up laundry.  And we need clothes to wear.

So, that is my confession for the week, as well as my prayer request - that I will be able to control the urge to be constantly online, to be constantly checking for status updates and new tweets, and to actually get work done!  I also pray that I will let God be the beginning and ending of my day… that I will let Him guide me from the moment I open my eyes and throughout my day to whatever He has for me.

And now I have a question for you…

How do you define worship?

I’m looking forward to reading the answers…

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Wow… that was a long one!  If you made it this far, congrats!  And thanks for reading…

Did I mention that we had Vietnamese Spring rolls for lunch?  Or were they Summer rolls… not sure.  They were the hard-rice-stuff-dipped-in-water wrapped ones - very fresh, very yummy.  That’s the treat for anyone that made it all the way through!

As always, part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival!

Is that a safe thing to say in today’s world? To admit that you are privileged enough to get to do something that you love for a living? I hope so.

I’ve been *the* worship leader for 5 months now, and I’m finally starting to get past the “freaking-out-because-I-have-no-clue-what-I’m-doing!!!!!” stage and really starting to have some fun.

Really, really starting to have some fun…

I’m so totally and completely loving this!

Yes, I’m still in waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head and still very much out of my comfort zone, but the fear is subsiding… I’m even able to talk loud enough into the mic that people can hear me! Yay for me! Seriously… praying in front of a small group is one thing, but the whole church? Eek! I’ll get there.

God has been gently pulling me along and giving me just what I need when I need it through this. I am blessed that our pastor is a worshiper - a former worship leader of 30 years to be more to the point. He gets it, and he has been able to help me along as well (which is HUGE - thanks so much Chris!) and (Praise God!) he is willing to play in the band still. God is also bringing other worship leaders into my life to learn from (whether they know it or not), and guiding me along as I spend time with Him.

I’ve been going through a bible study created for worship teams which has brought many, many things to mind, and which our worship team will be starting later this month. I can’t wait to see what God does in our team through this! I have been going through the study online with a group of worship leaders, and have been gleaning as much as I can from them. I’m learning more and more how to do what God has called me to do from others who are out there doing it each week. I still have so far to go, but God has been walking beside me through each day, guiding me along this path.

So what is our worship team like? Well, we still kind of have two leaders… Pastor Chris leads the instrument side (’cause I am fairly lacking in that area, unfortunately - read, I suck at it) and I lead the rest… it’s a good thing we agree most of the time! We just added a drummer and a bass player (I’m hoping we didn’t scare them away last night) and put Dave back onto guitar. We have a really real band now! That’s 2 electric guitars, a acoustic, keyboard, kit, bass, female lead, male lead, and 1 guy and 3 gals singing. I’m so loving this! Oh, and only two of those positions are held by one person. Lots of people up there…

So, why am I sharing all of this? Well, first of all it is just coming out of the overflow of what I am feeling today. God is so good! He will provide everything you need just when you need it to do that which He has called you to do. I’m also sharing it because I’m excited to see what God will be doing through this team of amazing people that I get to work with. We have been given a high calling! We are there to point the way to the throne room of God each Sunday. We are there to worship our Wonderful Savior, and in so doing, to lead the congregation in worshiping Him too.

Can you ask for a better gig? I mean, seriously? To get to make music in honor of and to give glory to our Creator and Savior… it’s so cool!

There is just something about making music with people too… you get to build relationships at a different level than just hanging out and talking. It’s a different level than when you go through a bible study too. There is something about how we were made that music resonates within us to something deeper.

God created us to be worshipers. He created us to worship Him! Every human being will worship something… that’s just how we were made. That worship will come out in our day-to-day actions, in what we do and how we do it. We worship God when we give Him our time and thoughts, when we do what He calls us to do.
Adding in the musical aspect - singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs - it makes that worship resonate deeper within us. It touches us in a deeper way, and it is pleasing to Him. It helps to draw out of us a deeper worship of Him, and in turn we feel closer to Him.

Pretty cool…

And I get to help guide that process along. I get to lift my voice in praise and adoration, and I get to point the way for others to do the same thing. Yes, it’s a very high calling. It’s also a very humbling position. Yes, it’s scary, but it’s also amazing.

I get to worship God for a living…

I just love my job!