Pages

Sunday, June 16, 2013

How Great Thou Art...

When I was a child I was into the performing arts.  For my first public performance I was in a Vaudeville Show and my act was to sing the "Elephant Song" (I was five...).  On Opening Night I had my elephant costume on and I took the stage behind a dropped curtain, and as the curtain raised in true Vaudeville style a giant placard with the name of my act was revealed to the audience.  The curtain went up.  I saw the crowd... And I....... RAN!!!  I ran as fast as I could with a huge paper mache' elephant head on my shoulders.  The crowd roared in laughter, and started cheering.  Well, when I heard them cheering I turned around and ran back onto the stage, did my song and received another roaring round of applause.

It turns out the placard had been put on the stand backwards so the audience saw a blank white placard, and an elephant who suddenly ran off the stage.  They thought it was part of the act.  They laughed at the emcee who was flipping the card around while I made my way back to center stage.  That mistake though unintentional, sealed the deal for me.  I was addicted.  I LOVED to hear crowds roar, cheer, applause, etc.

I was encouraged to use the talent God gave me at church, so I did.   My first solo at church was "How Great Thou Art".  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I was unable to separate "performance" from "worship".  I was unable to "Worship" in the true sense of the word because for me it was still a performance.  The fact that there were no judges, and rarely any applause (we didn't clap in church) didn't change the fact that for me, it was still about glorifying me and not Praising and Glorifying God Almighty.  So, I don't lead worship, or sing in one of the worship bands at church.  I am content to Worship from the pews, because there I can worship.  There I can cry.  There in the pew, by myself, I don't care what other people think and I can worship.

Every now and then I hear a song or see a performance and think, Man, I would LOVE to do this piece...  And I just did.  Just me and the four walls of my office.  But it is too awesome to not share...

So, enjoy this, I certainly did...  If you have a good internet connection, go full screen and watch it in HD, it is very well done...

How Great Thou Art by World Outreach Church featuring StikYard from World Outreach Church on Vimeo.

Until His work in me is Complete.
Paul