It was a wonderful Sunday night at come2go. I was on stage leading a very special & powerful time of worship. My mind was clear & focused on Jesus as I was singing & leading. About half an hour into our time, I started to hear a faint sound that I couldn’t place. It became louder and louder. I then realized that this wasn’t an air conditioner or feedback from our speakers; it was some kind of instrument. To my surprise the phantom instrument was actually on key and melodic. While the song was still going on, I opened my eyes and began to scan the room for the source of the non-planned counter melody I was hearing. It was then that I saw a man sitting in the back proudly playing his trumpet along with the song, impromptu of course. It was an awkward sight to say the least.
It took everything in me not to literally burst out laughing. Not because of the sound, but because of the situation. I remember thinking, “Only at come2go could this happen and appear semi-normal!” Our mystery trumpeter was privately asked to stop by one of our pastors, but for the rest of the worship service I couldn’t shake the situation from my mind; it brought me out of focus with why I was doing what I was doing.
What about you? Have you ever been distracted during worship?
When I started leading worship 9 years ago I would beat myself up because of my problem with focus. If anything went wrong during a song, i.e. feedback, missed notes, out of tune guitar, sloppy transitions, I would allow it to rule my thoughts for the rest of the worship time. Then afterwards I would feel bad that I wasn’t focused on the Lord during the worship service. It was & still is tough at times to be distraction-free during worship when there are so many things ready to steal my attention away.
Consider David’s words in Psalm 25:
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
2 in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
15 My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.
I am learning that there will always be plenty of things ready to steal my attention away while I worship; but I cannot allow them to. David says that his eyes “are ever on the Lord”. If I set my eyes on Him, then people, situations, mess ups & technical issues will not be able to deter my attention; or at least not for very long.
Why do I allow wrong notes & out of tune guitars to distract me from the Lord? Because deep down inside I want the music to be amazing and it bothers me when it’s not. This isn’t necessarily a bad goal, but it turns into one if I allow it to steal my attention away from the One the music is meant to be for. But as I learn to focus my eyes on Him, a carefully planned transition, brilliant harmonies and perfectly in-tune guitars loses some of its luster.
Maybe you’re not a musician so imperfections in music aren’t a distraction for you. But maybe your present circumstance is; maybe you’re screaming kids steal your attention during worship or maybe your checking account balance. does Whatever it may be, let’s learn to lift our eyes off of ourselves – our worries, troubles, heartaches & headaches – and set them on the Lord. All of those things that distract us mean very little when we catch a glimpse of who God is. He is worthy of our attention. And when He has it, all of our troubles in life seem so small in comparison to our awesome God. Now that’s true spiritual perspective.
Was the trumpet player’s worship invalid? No. But I allowed the situation to distract me from my own worship. Hopefully as I get more mature, I’ll allow less things to take my attention away from Jesus.
Please feel free to leave a comment below to start some discussions
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Yep, we have kids, and once you have kids, everything is innundated with distraction. And church is THE worst – you’re trying to keep them quiet, they’re going NUTS, and people in all the pews around you are giving you the evil eye (even if your kids are good). And you wonder if you are a bad Christian because you haven’t paid attention to a sermon, much less ANYTHING in 3 years 5 months and 4 days.
And then you think, God has kids too. . .millions of them! He probably understands.
And then you think, why am I worshipping anyway? Am I here to show God how awesome and singleminded I am in devotion to him? Or am I here to receive GRACE and MERCY because I am a sinner? Is my worship less valid to God because I have to get up during the sermon and change a diaper?
I may be wrong, but the only form of worship Jesus seems to reject in the gospels is false worship based on pride. There were plenty of distracting experiences. . .the guy getting lowered through the ceiling during a sermon, a whore crashing a dinner party to pour perfume on Jesus’ feet, 5,000 hungry people interrupting Jesus’ quiet time! Jesus accepted these “distractions” to worship, but denied the worship of the Pharisees who criticized the worship of others.
Who is to say that the impromptu worship of a trumpet player is invalid? Or the worship of a dad with screaming kid who has a poopy diaper? What if the person next to me sings off key. . .or too loudly. What if I sing off key or my voice is ugly and I don’t know it? Sure it’s distracting, but just because someone’s worship is socially inept, does mean God doesn’t accept it?
Hey David,
you make some awesome points. please don’t misunderstand my intentions. I wasn’t attempting to call any worship non-authentic including the trumpet players. I was attempting to share a personal struggle i have with allowing distractions to make me lose my focus. I didn’t mean to imply that God doesn’t accept worship in the midst of distractions. I hope you didn’t take it that way.