Unnoticed Worship...

So I was thinking about worship... and what pleases the heart of God... and as a worship leader - "how do you lead people to that place...?" Certainly its more than great songs, low light, candles... But if that's true then what is it... What is it the warms the heart of God?

I was reading back through a book "The Unquenchable Worshipper" by Matt Redman and it has few pages that really hit home on this... He opens this thought by addressing the hardest instrument to play in an orchestra is the 2nd violin - He says b/c everyone wants to be the 1st violinist... We naturally feel like if we are in the spot light we are being successful... He then transitions into the story in Luke (21:1-4) when Jesus notices the poor widows offering and how it is only a few copper coins... More than likely this was a difficult moment for this women who obviously didn't have as much to offer as most... But then Jesus declares "this poor widow has put in more than all the others."

It's amazing that Jesus looks past the coins and into the heart of this woman... I wonder how many times in life we feel frustrated with where we are or with what we have... Feeling sorry that we are not the 1st violinist... But it seems to me that Jesus is much more concerned with the process than he is with the actual situation...

I have some friends that have really gone out on limbs to offer God there worship... In many ways these guys are "1st violinists"... They are the "1st chair" of what they do... but somehow they've realized that their greatest moments of worship may never come in a sanctuary, but in their greatest moments of inadequacies... For this reason they are doing things in our community that will get them absolutely no recognition and most likely will not make it into a worship song...

But then Jesus declares "this poor widow has put in more than all the others."

So back to the idea of leading people into a place of worship... My prayer is that somehow God can lead our community (myself included) not just to times of corporate worship that are both authentic and intimate, but also to individuals living out unnoticed worship for no other reason that to live out the heart of God...