It was a gift from my father when I went off to college, my grandpa's guitar. He got it when my grandfather died and had since stopped playing it himself. I loved the history, the mellow sound and the musty smell of the instrument, but struggled with my own deficiencies as I taught myself. These deficiencies, of course, were a natural result of lack of practice and diligence. Despite this, I have always enjoyed playing and have tried to keep it up to a certain degree, but have never become as proficient as I felt a guitar of this quality deserved. So the sound has remained muffled, shared only with close friends or with such a quiet strum that only I could hear as a result of the lack of confidence. My precious gift too often collected dust.
Since becoming worship leader at DCF almost two years ago, I have led vocally. At times we have had a full worship team and other times just one on the guitar (def not me!). I have even led a few times a capella when we haven't had any musicians. Worship comes from the heart, not the expression. We worship in spirit and in truth and God is glorified. This is why when the couple who play guitar and drum left for holiday in the States, I didn't worry... until I realized what could potentially be done.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9-11
As a church family, we didn't need a guitar to bring God praise, but I knew there was a gift God had given that was going unused. As a leader, I want to encourage others to use the gifts God gave them so that we as a body will bear fruit. I began to practice the guitar. How many times do we forsake the things God has given us because of fear and insecurities? True worship however means taking the focus off ourselves and putting it on Christ where it belongs. For me, this was about sacrificing perfectionism in order to bring the sacrifice of praise. In that vulnerability, Christ revealed His strength and we worshiped.
My prayer is that ye will be encouraged to dust off the gifts He gave you for His glory. May ye put aside fears and insecurities and allow God to work in those weaknesses. Today, when my fingers stumbled across the strings, I kept going back to the words resonating from my own mouth and became overcome with joy to praise Him. "You are my strength when I am weak... You are my all in all." It was a spiritual stretching for me for sure, but a sweet stretching. His grace really is sufficient.
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