|
I have been leading worship for over 10 years now. I didn’t grow up knowing anything about music. Quite the opposite in fact. I knew nothing. I was always into different areas of the arts but music was never one of those areas. I was saved just before graduating, when I was 17. Shortly after that I started to think about music and wanted to learn how to play the piano. I had talked to a few people about it but everyone said it took so long to learn and so I wasn’t feeling all that encouraged. One Friday night some friends, including Nolan who is now my husband, were praying. We were seeking the Lord and ministering to one another. Nolan turned to me and he said, “I feel like the Lord is going to make you into a worship leader who leads from the piano.” I don’t think I had even told him that I had the desire. Back in those days I was very simple and strong in my faith. If the Lord said something I just believed it and there were no questions asked. So if the Lord said I was going to lead worship from the piano, then I was going to. The next day I called a friend of mine who played and told her that I wanted to learn. I went over to her house and she sat me down and began to show me how to form a major chord. So there I was, C D E F G A B. Whole note, whole note, half note, whole note, whole note, whole note, half note. Got it! First with my right hand then with my left. Making mistakes every few steps. She showed me how to follow along on a paper, when to change to the next chord. Suddenly I ran into something I didn’t know, Em. I said to her, “ what’s this?” “That’s minor chord,” she answered. “Well how do you play that?” “I just taught you how to do major chords. Don’t you think that’s enough for the day?” “Na!” I answered. “Show me how to do these.” So she went on to show me how to form minor chords. So there I was. C Cm D Dm E Em F Fm G Gm A Am B Bm. That was it. That was all she was showing me for the day. I went straight home and obsessively sat at this little kids keyboard I had, the kind where your fingers are bigger than the keys. Up and down the tiny keys I went. Right hand, left hand. C D E…… I took out that old song “Lord I lift your name one high”. I played it over and over and over again. Then I tried some other songs and once again ran into something I didn’t know. It was a B with a little b beside it, Bb. So first thing in the morning I called my friend again. “I keep coming across number signs and little b’s. What does that mean?” So there I was at her house going over this new stuff. She taught me flat chords and sharp chords. Hours and hours I went up and down the piano, majors, minors, flats, sharps. All of a sudden it was like I was a puppet in the hands of the Lord and my hands took off on the piano. I was doing things and playing things that I didn’t know how to do. It was as if the world of music existed in this dark room. There were all kinds of things to learn in that room. Suddenly the light went on in one corner and I just knew what I had not previously known. I could play. Not wonderfully, but I could play. Hebrews says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen.” One of the greatest ways that we can please God is through our faith. The Bible says that without it we actually can not please him at all. Often times as worshippers, especially musicians, we focus on our abilities and talents and forget that what the Lord is really after is the substance in our hearts behind the action of playing, dancing, singing. He wants our hearts. He wants faith to spring up from our spirits to grab a hold of all that He has for us. By the grace of God I had the faith to believe Him about the talents that He was wanting to give to me. What is the Lord asking you to do for Him. Let it be an act of worship. 2 weeks to the day that I got that prophetic word, I lead worship for the first time. Now that’s not coming from a background of music. That’s coming from a girl who couldn’t hear a chord played and sing one of the notes in the key. It’s coming from someone that didn’t even know where a C note was on the piano. But none the less, there I was leading worship for youth just 2 Friday’s later. Soon however I ran into a problem. I couldn’t play any of the fast songs. This was going to be a problem for me if I was going to be a worship leader. To understand the supernatural significance to this next part you have to understand a bit about who I am as a person. I am extremely tenacious. I am a go getter and I NEVER quit. I have always been quite capable and anything I set my mind to do, I can usually do with some skill. I was a Circle Square Ranch, upstairs in the “upper room” as they called it. I had my chord book from the church with all the fast songs in it. I sat down at the piano and I tried one. I couldn’t get my hands to change fast enough or something. I couldn’t get the rhythm. I just couldn’t do it. “Oh well”, I thought. “I’ll just try another one.” One by one I went through the book and to my despair I couldn’t play any of them. I tried and I tried. Soon the sun went down and it got dark in the room. Still I sat trying and trying. “Surely there must be one song I can play. How can I be a worship leader without being able to play fast songs.” Midnight came. Midnight went. I was not going to quit. I had never quit anything. “Come on,” I kept telling myself. “You’re a capable person. If you can do slow songs, you can do fast.” Finally late into the night to my great defeat, I closed the book and headed back to my room. At the edge of the door I looked back at the piano which was the only thing in the room at the time other than a fooze ball table. Photo: Standing at the edge of the room looking at the piano. The light was dim and there was a chill in the night. Out loud I said, “The day I play a fast song, I’ll KNOW it’s the Lord cause I couldn’t do it.” I went back to my room and laid in bed feeling very discouraged. The next morning you can guess where I was first thing. I took my book and went back to the piano room. I sat down and opened the book to the first page. I lifted my hands to the piano to play and suddenly in that dark room where music existed for me, another light came on. What I had not previously known, I now knew. I placed my hands on the keys and consecutively played every song in the book! It was the Lord! This was introduction to both music and worship leading. It was powerful and supernatural. I really didn’t know how to sing a note when a chord was played. Did I practice? Yes for sure. But God was the Lord of my rehearsal times. When the Lord gives us a dream or a prophetic word it seems that we often come up with all the excuses why we can not do the thing that He has called us to. In every situation in life we respond with one of two things. We can respond in faith and we believe that we can do what we’re called to do, that there will be provision, and that God will take care of the details that are out of our control. On the other hand we can respond in fear. Fear chokes out our ability to move forward. It stops us from walking out the call that God has put on our lives. For the artists, there seems to be a great deal of fear in their response to God. If God calls you to be involved in worship, respond with faith and let the insecurities that would hinder you be cast aside that you embrace all that God has for you. Questions for groups or individuals 1. What do you feel like are your continued excuses as to why you don’t live a life of worship? 2. Why are those excuses not legitimate? 3. What you do think was the greatest display of faith that you ever presented before the Lord? |
