On July 4, 2007 my family celebrated Independence Day. I was sad that I would miss this celebration with my family, but very excited about where I was. I was at the International Worship Institute in Grapevine, TX. I would be there for many days, and Wednesday the 4th was my first full day. I am just now beginning to see the irony in this.
First let me take you on a journey through that day.
~7:45 am: Choir practice
~9:00 am: Erik Eskelund taught a session titled "Who are you listening to? (The Wild Adventure of Hearing God's Voice)"
This is where I began to realize how much I was letting the distractions of the world hold me back from really listening to and worshipping God. Erik said that there is no way to accommodate God and the world. HMMM? Really? That's exactly what I have been trying to do.
~10:30 am: Worship lead by Lindell Cooley
This is where God broke me and started to heal me by dancing with me. If you don't understand all of this, you will think I am crazy, but He held me and danced with me and let me cry. This is also where I really got the meaning of the phrase "Pathway into His Presence". Lindell Cooley provided the music and the words and the atmosphere and then stepped out of the way and let God come in. It wasn't Lindell's spotlight, it was God's.
~11:45 am: Choir Practice with Tommy Walker
This was the most fun I have ever had. In about 3 hours we learned 9 songs. I had never heard any of these songs before, but I now have the CD. The picture in this blog is of Linda. She is the alto in Tommy's band and she taught us our parts. She also mentored me without knowing it. God's love flowed through her like crazy. She didn't seem the least bit proud, even thought she has the most fabulous voice. Thursday night we got to lead worship with them. This was very humbling to me. I couldn't figure out how I got there. Why would God let me have such an amazing experience. I was leading worship with people who do this professionally and in front of people from all over the world. I realized that nobody new who I was, or anyone else in the choir for that matter, but we still helped to lead them into the presence of God. Oh, what a responsibility. Oh, what an honor.
~2:45pm: Lindell Cooley lead a session titled "The Coming Sound"
Once again, I was taught that we were designed to minister to the Lord and quit trying to please the church. He said, "at the end of the best I have-it is still average." and "worship that does not come from our spirit does not please God".
~4:00 pm: Worship lead by Tim Hughes and Message-Leading like Jesus by Ross Parsley
I was still processing what I had learned during the day, but I did get one important thought that will never leave me. "We want to be servants until we get treated like servants". That hit me hard. We ask to be servants because that's what we know Jesus would do. But I guess I always had in my head that acting as a servant would bring me nothing but joy. But when people treated me as the servant that I asked God to make me, I didn't feel joy. I felt victimized. Wow. I was getting what I had asked for, but it wasn't producing the outcome that I had expected.

So, to wrap this up, I had my own Independence Day. I am free to worship in a way that is pleasing to God, not to the people of this world. I am free of the fear of judgement from the people of this world. I am free to create a pathway into His presence for the people of this world.