what a day

"When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." I Cor. 14:26

Celebration was awesome tonight and I felt like we experienced this verse right out of I Corinthians. Our worship leader opened up tonight saying that we were going to direct our focus of worship on God's character revealed in the various aspects through scripture. She had given the worship team a list of several scriptures and said to feel free to read any of those out as we felt led. We have been praying as a worship team for unity, both in spirit and musically that we would be able to flow freely as we felt the Spirit directed. Then when we started worship, she opened it up to the congregation as well, that as anyone felt led they could share a scripture that focused on some attribute of God (like as a refuge, a father, a healer, etc.) or pray out. Sometimes people really shy away from things like this, but tonight was amazing. So many people shared scriptures or prayed, and the whole time the worship team was able to keep the flow musically. I believe God is really bringing together a group of musicians not only with talent, but a true HEART for worshiping God. As some of us talked about it afterwards, it was cool to find that while we were pumped up and excited, it wasn't an 'emotional high' but rather a settled peace that God is doing things in us, in our lives, both individually and corporately, and there's a new level of expectation about where God is taking us. We have a sense that we are about to come into a season of walking in another level of the vision God has planted in our hearts. But in the past few days, maybe week or so, I am finding I am striving less, and resting more. There's a new confidence that God is doing SOMETHING, and I don't need to try to make something happen. I'm feeling settled.

On a different note, this is my first Father's Day without my dad, and it was actually much harder than I expected. This whole past week, actually, I've felt flooded with memories, things I'd like to tell my dad, or that I wish he could see. Tonight we sang "Blessed Be Your Name", which we sang at my dad's funeral and the song now always reminds me of that. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the words "You give and take away...blessed be the name of the Lord" has taken on a whole new meaning for me personally. I haven't talked about my feelings much this week, but apparently I wasn't the only one missing dad. This morning Bryce put on the John Deere shirt that all the kids wore for the funeral (in honor of my dad), and the cross chain necklace my dad gave him, and asked if we could all call him 'Bubba' today. When I asked why he said "Cause that was my nickname from Pappy, and I'm just missing him today." (Dad woulda definitely teared up over that one). It's an eternal comfort to know he spent today with THE Father.