Penguin Worship

"My heavenly Father likes to hear me sing as well as those who can sing better than I can. My Father likes to hear the crow as well as the nightingale- Billy Bray

If only I sang as beautiful as a crow cawed.

Not only do I sing like a wounded penguin, I also dance like one.  I can only hit two notes: painful and annoying. Not only do I get people peeking over their shoulders at me, trying to figure out the source for their headache, I have had little kids hear my singing and cover their ears. When the worship leader encourages the body to 'shout to the Lord', I shout as loud as I can, "I love you, Jeeeeesssssssssssssssuuuuusssssss!" If I can shout, clap and celebrate a touchdown or a knockout loudly, then I figure I better be twice as loud in my expression for the Great Lord Jesus.
 I also aint got no rythm, hey, I cant even spell rtythm without using spell check or dictionary.com.  There was one time I was asked stop clapping during worship because I threw off the rhythm of those around me. I also have missed my hands while clapping and hit the kid sitting beside me in the head.
Early in my Faith, I prayed to God that I wanted to 'dance like David'.  And I did.  Needless to say that day was pretty memorable for me and for the 200 or so people that witnessed me create a one man mosh pit. Out of curiosity, I looked up the definition of danced (raqad) and learned that it meant to stamp, to spring about wildly. I learned early on in my walk that God is Faithful to answer Biblical prayers.

Each one of these incidents, stick with me (and others I am sure) because I can recall how Holy Spirit had stirred me up, how He had challenged me to step out of my idea of cool and to be a fool for Him.  The back and forth in my mind about if I was trying to please my God or do things for show.  I also recall how flushed I felt after some of the incidents when people I didn't know glared their disapproval at me.

But the most memorable time of worship for me was with my family.  It was a day in which Naomi came back from a weekend at her dad's and she was tired, whiny and snotty to everyone.  It was particularly frustrating for Nikki, as her excitement to see her daughter was stolen by the words of the bio-parents being hissed at her by her 5 year old daughter.

I remember it very clearly, Logan, Naomi and Nikki were sitting on the couch and I saw the negativity jump from Naomi to Nikki to Logan and eventually to me.  I got hot at the thought of how each one of us was giving away the Joy we should be having with the family altogether.  I threw up my arms in disgust and prayed angrily in the Spirit as I walked outta the room.  And then Holy Spirit touched me and led me to sing the chorus of  Blessed Be Your Name.  By time I got back into the room Nikki was singing and a smile had appeared on her face.  Naomi and Logan joined in shortly after and before we were done, each one of us was smiling and singing praise to God.  It was amazingly beautiful, for our hearts and Spirits to be in unison as we as a family, shook off the slop of the enemy and put on the Joy of the Lord. Individually and collectively, we overcame our attitudes and chose to worship the God who is deserving of all praise no matter what circumstance.