I’m excited for this blog. It does a few things that I know of so far. It makes me be more intentional about my work as a worship leader and it inspires me to be more creative and not lazy. I think every work field has it’s moments of mundane motions we go through to get the job done and a worship leader isn’t excluded from that bunch….so to the worship leaders out there, note that documenting work and remembering has an important role for us.

When we remember and recall memories we become story tellers. The creative canvas to express these stories could quite possibly be the largest artist canvas known to people. I believe that this canvas belongs to the work of worshiping Jesus. After years of sitting with that thought I honestly believe it is true. Worshiping Jesus is the largest canvas an artists could have and I’ll have to elaborate on this much more in another post. For today however, I wanted to share an experience I came up with for the group of students that I gather with weekly.

The Experience

In my last blog entry I expressed how I wish I could go to church and learn how to talk with homeless people among many other things. So this week I was going to the pharmacy and outside the store was a homeless man.

Side Note – Have you ever noticed the cardboard signs that homeless people hold? I always tend to make a point to at least read the sign before interacting or not interacting. Being a graphic designer/marketing person by day I’m always drawn to letters and how they communicate to others. Lately I feel like I’ve seen some really interesting homeless cardboard signs. Earlier in the week I saw one and I was taken by surprise. It read something to the extent of, “isn’t today beautiful? everyday is a blessing from God.” That sign caused me to look up at the sky and think about the sun shine and smile…. and in that moment a cardboard sign from a man who has nothing led my mind to a place of thanksgiving. It was a humbling moment.

So back to the other homeless guy in front of the pharmacy store. This guy had a sign as well and his was also unique. But the sallow look on his face and the sun scorched dry skin expressed his sign was going to be hard to read. It’s hard for me to express the next emotion I felt because I feel guilty for feeling it but to be transparent I’ll admit my guilt. I read the sign, made eye contact, smiled and as I saw him starting to open his mouth and ask me something I walked into the store like a big jerk. I prejudged his words thinking to myself that I couldn’t really do anything for his situation. I didn’t have any cash and I doubted anything at the pharmacy was what he needed… but then again I didn’t even listen to him so how would I know.

I thought about that guy a lot afterwards. So much that I made an appoint to create an exercise for myself and the students I work with to do when we got together at church this week. My thoughts stemmed from me asking myself, how do I get over this hesitation to stop and give these people my time if anything. If I can’t help them with a few bucks I would guess that valuing their time for 20 seconds is 20 less seconds they have to feel alone, unheard, and hopeless.

So this week I had my band write out blessings in the bible we have been impacted by. We wrote them on cards and during one of our songs each one of them took turns putting down their instrument and handed them to their peers to read and then we had those people do the same. In this act we are practicing giving something of value that they have received to someone else and letting that blessing go forth however the next person decided it should be shared. So while it’s not exactly like interacting with a homeless person there is an interaction taking place that is similar. It’s the experience of recognizing that what we have is from God. Whether it’s scripture, money, time, food, etc. God’s caregiving quality is the image humanity is made in and it’s natural for us to feel good about caring for each other. Why wouldn’t we practice something like that?

my point exactly.

-m