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