I was thinking about how to describe to a person who did not understand how it was possible to go straight into a place of passionate worship as soon as the first couple of chords are played of a worship song at church how it was that one can get there so quickly.  How can I explain why my hands are raised and my heart begins singing sooner than some can comprehend?

It is like a child visiting a sweet place they have been many times, not fearing the path because it is very well known to them, not going slowly because there is a joyful place waiting ahead—like the edge of Grandma’s lake where there are frogs to catch, sticks to play with in the water, and canoe rides waiting, and stones to be skipped.  This is how it is with a worship song. I know the song and I know a sweet truth of God is waiting to be explored.

Some songs have been there for me and have talked to my spirit when I have gone through deep troubles—they are landmark worship songs where I received a deeper sense of who God is and came out of it loving Him better.  Since I know the path and the aspect of truth of God waiting for me in this song (I have travelled it well at these critical times in my life), I can easily worship. Each time I sing it, I am bringing God thanksgiving for carrying me through a particular part of my life.  There is one song that carried me through two different trials—loneliness of ministering in a foreign country the first time I heard it, and again four years later as a fire was raging through the community in which I living where we were faced with the fear of losing our earthly things.  That song holds a many-faceted beauty to me.

God gives me fresh revelation of Himself in the middle of other songs at times, maybe connecting to a Bible passage I was just studying, or an experience I just had, or how it related to a friend’s situation.  I love to worship when He chooses to reveal something to me about Himself.

I believe almost every day, I wake up thankful for what God has one in my life and what he has given to  me. I wake up ready to run down the path to “grandma’s lake” because I know there is something good waiting there.  God is so good, I cannot wait to bring Him honor.

David said at the rebuke of his wife, Michal, “I will become even more undignified than this” as he had danced before the Lord God with his whole heart (2 Samuel 6:16-23).  It is to God, not man that we bring our praise. I have gained my freedom in worship from travelling lonely places where God was my only true and faithful Friend. When you have been there, it is much easier to just run straight to Him as soon as the music begins.