When I was 18 years old, I took a break from leading praise and Worship. My hiatus from singing lasted about five years. However, my original intention was to stop singing for the rest of my life because at the time I was still a teenager and teenagers are apparently dramatic lol.
By the time I (was twenty-three years old and) started leading praise and worship again, I was a bit anxious about doing so. You know how anxiety goes... It will have you flooding your mind with the possibilities of what could go wrong, especially when you're still harping on bad experiences from your past.
I remember a friend of mine, also from my past, once telling me this: "The things of God are actually very simple and child-like. Most people over-complicate their relationship."
With that statement fresh in my mind, I decided that instead of letting myself get anxious whenever I had to lead praise and worship, I would simply just lighten up and play a game with God. Today, I'm calling the game "God, Fear, or Flesh" and it was basically a game I used to measure (1.) how well I was able to "hear God" when it came to picking songs for the worship (2.) whether I was choosing songs for praise and worship out of fear or anxiety or (3.) whether I was just being lazy or spoiled and choosing songs straight out of my flesh.
I made the assessment on whether I was listening to God, fear, or my flesh based on the effectiveness of what happened in the room after I finished singing a song or a set of songs. While I literally did this as a game just to help me calm down my nervousness, it also helped me to laugh at myself whenever I made a mistake, instead of being too hard on my self. At the same time, this game challenged me to want to be as in tune with God as possible. I felt as though being in tune with God meant I was winning the "game" and I really enjoy winning so that was a plus.
I believe that playing that game really helped me in many ways but mainly, it helped me to have communication lines with God that were light-hearted and fun, not scary or demanding. There's a scripture in the Bible that quotes Jesus saying "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Dare I say, sometimes we just need to throw away our learned intellect and just carry ourselves as children whose Father is God.
| Summer 2014 | After P&W |
xo Rocky Dania
facebook.com/rockydania3
