A few months ago my Grandma passed away. She had been in the hospital for a while going through all sorts of treatments, surgeries & diagnosis; it was an emotional rollercoaster for our family. I found out that she had passed at around 6:30am on a Sunday morning. I had just walked through the doors of come2go to get ready for morning worship when my mom called me and gave me the news. After I got off the phone I broke down. A flood of emotions swept over me; sadness, anger, disappointment, confusion. I had really believed that she was going to pull through.

A few hours later I was in the middle of leading worship. I had somehow managed to make it through all my preparation & rehearsal time without another break down. In the middle of our worship time we began singing a song called “Blessed Be Your Name”. I was leading the song just fine until we got to a section with the following lyrics:

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your Name

During rehearsal I went right on by these lyrics without a second thought, but when we got to this point during the service I stopped singing. The music continued but I took a step back from the microphone and put my head down. A lot happened in the next few moments. The first thought that came into my head was “Dave, what were you thinking?”. I was the one who chose the songs for that morning. Of all the times to sing this song, this was one of the hardest. I had to stop & think whether or not I was able to sing those lyrics and really mean them. Could I truthfully, with all my heart, bless God’s Name like the song said on the day my Grandma passed away? Click to continue »