Worship has always been a big part of my life. My family was always involved in serving on worship teams, and are all musically inclined. But growing up, it always felt like it was just a part of church. I didn’t have a very thorough understanding of why we worship, and my perspective of it was quite naïve, at least until I was 16, and I spent part of my summer on a mission’s trip to Tactic, Guatemala, and I got to lead worship and serve families in severely impoverished circumstances.
On one of our first days in Tactic, we went to one of the elementary schools in a very mountainous and secluded village. This was one of the main parts of our ministry—we played soccer with the kids, made house calls to families to pray for them, sat in on classes and helped with their learning (in our very rudimentary Spanish), and led worship services with them every day.
For the worship, there was only one old, poorly maintained guitar that was available for me to play, the strings went out of tune very quickly, the worship team that had prepared for the trip was very uncoordinated, and so, we awkwardly stumbled through the songs we had learned in Spanish. As someone who wants to do things “right”, I was frustrated, and honestly, I felt embarrassed--if only I’d had my guitar from home, if only we’d been more disciplined in our preparation, I would have done a better job. But when the time came, these kids danced and sang along with so much enthusiasm and passion that it didn’t matter that things weren’t going perfectly, that the guitar wasn’t in tune or that we weren’t leading them as well as we could have.
These elementary school kids were entirely certain of their Saviour, and that was all they needed to worship with their entire selves. They could have despaired over what they lacked, but I witnessed a room full of eight-year-olds express with absolutely certainty that they had just enough, because they had Jesus.
When I was 16, I was too worried about doing things right than doing the right thing. I still worry about doing things right. We may not have a daily struggle with starvation, or homelessness, but some of us worry about making rent or our mortgage payments, how we’ll pay for school, or our other bills. We worry about our relationships, our jobs. These are not unimportant things, but when they aren’t happening how we’d hoped, it’s unfortunately easy to let our worry overtake us, consume us. To let the things that are going wrong be our focus. And when we focus on the things that stress us out or cause us anxiety, it can be difficult to worship, and easier to despair, and ask God “why?!”. We still have to face these things, but if we make the CHOICE to worship, even when things are difficult, our spirit can rest easy in the knowledge that whatever battle we are facing, every day, is not the endgame. Our circumstances may not change, but we, like these kids, can find security and more importantly HOPE in the TRUTH of what Jesus has done for us and does for us daily, and that is reason enough to sing, or write, or dance, or pray, or enjoy nature or however we choose to worship God, and by praising and honouring what God HAS done, IS doing, and WILL do, we remember that we don’t face anything alone.
Ali Dueck
Relate Surrey Dream Team
TODAY’S PRAYER:
DAY 5 - JANUARY 10
Pray for: Our Local Church
1 Thessalonians 5:12
Pray for the leadership of Relate Church - for the pastors, the board, the staff and the dream team. Pray for their families, and that God continues to protect and strengthen them. Pray that every decision made will move us forward in God’s plan for us. Pray for increased influence and for the favour of God as we seek His Kingdom first. Pray that God brings the people necessary to help achieve His dream for us, and pray that He activates those already with us. Pray that many would come to know God, find freedom, discover their purpose and make a difference.
