I am being blasted with this right now because I feel like I’m seeing a lot of this in the “church culture”. I don’t know who is listening or who cares to read it, but I feel that my own heart is being challenged by it and so I should share the love

I don’t know if this will be a terribly long post like the others have been, but I just have some thoughts to share and hopefully a discussion starts. It seems lately that we are pushing cultural agendas to strike a chord with those outside the church, instead of pushing a Gospel that speaks to any agenda that can arise in the culture. This is a scary place to be because it doesn’t take much to fall into a place where the Gospel takes a back seat to whatever is going on around you. When the church at Ephesus struggled, it was because they stepped away from their first love. The love of the Gospel and it’s ability to reach every part of the heart. In their attempts to reach the Gentiles, they began to fall into some of their practices. In Paul’s letter to them, he spoke directly to the fact that they were slipping into the sin that was going on around them.

At the point we begin to try and align ourselves with an issue over our alignment with the Gospel, there will always be the possibility that we could be “tossed to and from by every wind and doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14). When the Gospel becomes a back door issue, it has the tendency to become a non issue. That. Is. Scary.

But this is only the way I see it. What say you?

I will admit before I even get started. Someone will probably get mad at this. Granted, there aren’t hundreds of people reading what I write, but I’m convinced that out of the few of you that read this someone will get mad at me. That. Is. Totally. Cool. With that being said…

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith impacts culture and vice versa. As I continue to look at it, it seems like both have been generally bad influences on each other. It reminds me of when I was a little boy. I am an only child, but with my mom being eighth of 9 and my dad being the oldest of 6, I’ve got a TON of cousins. We used to do so many crazy things and we would get the other in trouble all the time. I guess that’s just part of life as a kid. One of us would dare the other to jump off the bed. Trouble. In retaliation, one dares the other to grab an extra cookie. Trouble.  We are good at influencing each other to push the envelope, and we usually pushed it too far.

So how have faith a culture been mutually bad influences on each other? Well, as I sit here in my office and have been thinking about the upcoming weeks in our church from a worship standpoint, one of the things that continues to be at the forefront of my thinking is the relevancy of our worship experience. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we have to be relevancy is tremendously important to the church. So I don’t see that as a negative thing. I think the line gets blurry when we are striving to look so much like the world in the things that we do that “they can’t tell the difference”. I don’t think it is my job as a worship leader to confuse the people that walk in the door. I don’t want to put them in such a trance that when the service is over they say, “I didn’t even know I was in church! How did I get here???” Especially since I’m called to be different. As a Christian, it’s an honor for me to BE different. Look at 1 Peter 2:9. Being different is part of the job description. But I’ve been to churches where the people are trying to be relevant, or cool and trendy and they pull some things off. But inevitably, there’s one thing that starts to waver when we try to look like the rest of the culture we live in. That’s the gospel. I feel that in the different times I’ve gone to places that are trying SO hard to be attractive to the rest of the world, they end up diluting the one beautiful difference between the two.

This is the hinge between both faith and culture. As I said yesterday, when we turn both of these fast moving cars toward each other, there is only one place for them to crash. What was done at the cross changes both sides dramatically. I believe the reason that the church has influenced the rest of culture negatively is because of the way they look at culture. Just as you have some churches who try too hard to be cool, you have just as many trying too hard to make sure you know that they AREN’T anything like the rest of the world. Granted, we are called to not be lovers of the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15-16). That doesn’t mean that we should shun the people that are in the world. As a matter of fact, they are the reason we are still here. Some of us have run so far away from the line that we are simply screaming at the cruel, vile world far from the other side. The rest of the world and the culture we live in has never asked us to change ourselves and then maybe they would be a part of the church. We are to look different and they will hate us for it. Bible says so. BUT, there is a lot more room closer to the cross for us in the faith as well. When we run so far the other way, no one can hear you except for when you scream about how bad the other side is. No one wants to hear that. Come a little bit closer. A lot of things change at the foot of the cross. The other side even looks a lot different than you think.

As someone who spends his days sculpting a service that is designed to bring glory to the Father, I have to keep in mind that in my church there are some people who will have never had this experience before. Do I want to alienate them so much that they feel uncomfortable and never want to come back? Heck no. But do I want to present the gospel in a way that it challenges everything they have ever thought about life and Christ and the people around them? Heck yes. But here’s the secret: I’m doing that for you Christians as well. Think about it. Then meet me as I push toward the foot of the cross.

Do you ever see to people and wonder how in the world they ended up together? You see a really tall woman and a short dude and wonder what in the world happened? How many of you paid attention to either the NFL or the NBA labor disputes? When they were in the midst of all of that, it seemed like we would never get football or basketball back. But as time went on and the two sides got closer together things started to fall off the table until they were able to reach an agreement. The middle ground caused each side to lose some thing that was a part of them going in just to make the situation work.

What about in the instance of our faith and our culture? When I look at the two of them, I see a lot of stuff connected to both that probably shouldn’t be there. There are some things in this culture that I have to actively shield my children from because I don’t want it to become a part of their lives and thought processes. And if I’m completely honest, there are some things in faith that I have to actively shield my children from because I don’t want it to become a part of their lives and thought processes. So how do we get them to move toward the middle? Do we think that there IS a middle for the two? Well, I stand here today (actually I’m sitting, but I digress) saying that there is. Why? Because the church should be part of the culture. And because the people in the church are part of the culture they live in. They are married whether we like it or not. However, we have spent so much time trying to separate the two that we forget that there’s really not a way to separate the two. Most of the time they are fighting like teenage sisters who both have a date and one is taking too long in the bathroom. The church has alienated the culture in which we live to the point that when you mention church to some people they have already turned a deaf ear to anything you might have to say. Culture has gone so far south in many ways that the church believes that nothing good can EVER come from outside the doors of the church. So they sit at opposite sides of the room staring at the wall with their arms folded, occasionally looking back to give a scowl to the other. Someone needs to get the two of them in a room and mediate a conversation. Are there distinct differences between the two? Heck yes! Don’t get me wrong here. There are some things that won’t work in either place, but I’m convinced that is because both sides have traveled so far that neither side will ever be able to release some things.

So the question remains, where is the middle? I believe that the middle sits right at the foot of the cross. To those more embraced in the culture than the church, you might already see that as leaning to the wrong side. And that’s okay. To those of you more embraced in the faith than the culture, you’re probably excited about that. But as Lee Corso says, “Not so fast, my friend!” The cross is so welcoming and polarizing at the same time that it is able to handle being the middle of this complex spot. I like to think of it as the impact point for the collision between faith and culture. When we look at all the things that we hold on to in faith, some of those things aren’t necessarily things that we should be holding on to. We created things that we were never supposed to create. And then it threw the other side for a loop. When it comes to culture, there are things that just aren’t right. When people are left to their own devices, we get some crazy mess. Unfortunately, that can be said for both sides.

So why is the cross an impact point? Well, when you bring all of your baggage to the foot of the cross, it just can’t all stay there. Some of it was never meant to be. When two cars collide, there are parts of each car that are impacted. Neither of those cars come away looking like they did before they hit each other. They end up exchanging paint, losing windshields, denting doors…they both change. Both cars are changed individually, but they both end up sharing parts of themselves with the other. I tend to believe that the close faith and culture come to the cross, the faster things will fall off from either side. And if they ever collide at the cross, both sides will be amazingly surprised at what happens. Faith will be left with some bits of culture in it and the other way around.

What does this look like? Well, what does it look like to you? It’s my blog, so I can take your hypothetical question and turn it around on you. HA!

This is the question I continued to ask myself after watching last night’s State of the Union Address. After watching President Obama talk for a little over an hour, it was obvious that there was much discord in the room. Throughout the speech he seemed to be calling everyone out in hopes that they would attempt to work together for solutions to the country’s problems. After his speech was over there was the rebuttal from the Republican party. To me, the fact that there is someone ready to blow holes in what the President says before he even gets out of the room good speaks directly to my question. Was everything that he said true? Probably not. Will all of the things that he is pushing for happen? More than likely not. Is the chance lessened by the fact that everyone believes that they can do a better job than the person they are sitting next to at the table? You bet they are.

I don’t claim to be political by any stretch of the imagination. I try to stay current on thoughts an ideas because I believe it is a good idea to know where money is going and what my country is doing to keep us safe and educate our children and keep us moving forward for years to come. But I notice that every time I try to get a little deeper than that I’m turned away by the ugly underside of politics that shows its head in times like these. Something tells me that there has to be a way to wade through some of the egos to get to a working medium. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m sure that people are being paid to stand and clap, you would think that everyone had a great working relationship and was willing to take major steps toward fixing the problems in our country. But if that was really the case, I don’t think we’d be sitting here in the constant aftermath of problems that beset us.

After watching this whole thing, I thought about the church and how we relate to each other. I saw some nasty similarities. Unfortunately, lots of times there are people in the church who always feel like they can do a job better than the person doing it. There are factions and cliques that use harsh words in relation to the leadership and it creates instant division. At the same time, people spend time talking to the pastor or leaders and encouraging them to keep up the good work. It reminds me of the initial walk into the room for the President and his exit after he finished the speech. That may be the most superficial parade I’ve ever witnessed…except for right after church in the foyer. Eerily similar again…

Unity seems to be the one thing that everyone is asking for and no one is willing to really work toward. Maybe I’m speaking with cynical overgeneralizations, but that’s what I see. I see it in our country and I see it in the church. I don’t know if will ever happen in either place. But when it comes to the church, there’s one thing that always stands in the middle and if we continue to move toward that, we have a better chance to get this right. The cross, has been, is and always will be right where we need to be. If we aren’t moving toward it, then we will find unity a fleeting thought. So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to keep praying for my country and I’m going to keep moving toward the cross. Who’s with me?

I have been terribly busy lately and there is SO much going on right now. Generally that would be grounds for lots of good blogging material. And believe me, it is. I just haven’t had much time to sit down and do this. I don’t even know what to say at this point because it is all swirling around in my brain right now. Here’s what I have noticed in the past couple weeks. In order to attack the real problem, you have to settle in enough to figure out what the problem really is. Case in point: Friday night.

This past Friday night was The Perk:(the event) at Missouri Baptist University. They take the gym and turn it into an enormous coffee house and people perform and they give you coffee and food and it is a fun evening for current students as well as alumni. Anyway, I was there and performed a couple songs and got to see some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. As is customary, I got my cup of coffee and began to walk around the room. Upon my first drink I realized that this coffee had some punch. So over the course of the evening I nursed this one cup of coffee. I never finished it. I finally got home around 1am and wanted to jump straight into the bed. I tossed and turned for a couple hours and got really frustrated. Around 3:30 I stopped for about 30 seconds. It was then that I realized that my heart was pounding out of my chest because I was so wired from that coffee that I started drinking at 10:30 the night before. I was thinking about taking some sleeping medicine because I was feeling some other “symptoms” as well. Once I slowed myself down, all I needed was to drink some water and start reading.

I was actually considering treating a condition that I didn’t even have because I hadn’t slowed myself down enough to see what the real deal was. As I thought about it later, I found that I was guilty of not slowing myself down enough to listen to what God had for me. Everyone talks about the passage 1 Peter 5:7 where it says “casting all your cares on him because he cares for you”. But there are 2 things that got overlooked by me because I wasn’t looking for myself. Verse 6 says “Humble yourselves therefore before the mighty hand of God…” That tells me that I have to slow down and shift my focus. We always think that we know what we want and need. As a result we go and try to take NyQuil when really all we needed was to sit down a second and drink a glass of water. Sometimes we jump into another relationship when we really need to stay single. Sometimes we buy that car when the one we had was more than adequate.

Like I said at the beginning, there is a lot going on right now and my hope is that in the near future I’ll be able to share some of it. In the mean time I need to sit back and process it all and make sure that I’m sharing what God wants me to share.

I am an offender. I know other offenders. We are probably all offenders whether we want to admit it or not. We get to the point in our lives that we are so busy and scheduled that we look back and realize that we have planned Jesus out of our daily lives. I will get back to this point in a little bit, but first I want to talk more corporately.

A couple weeks ago we had a sermon on prayer and how it was important to those of us who call our church home. We have to be committed to praying for our church and its leaders and the people that walk in the door. Then it struck me. As the one who plans our Sunday services and the scheduling of people and the times, we give VERY little time to praying each Sunday. I have worked so hard in the past year plus to craft a service time with all of these different elements and creative moments and looked back and saw that some of the staples were missing. I had successfully planned out Jesus. We didn’t leave much room for the Holy Spirit to really work. So what did we do? We made a change. We decided that we would devote time each week to corporate prayer during the service. And people have really swallowed it up. And then I sit back and wonder, “What took us so long?”

Are you able to look at your life see ways that you have planned Jesus out of it? Are you recovering from realizing that you had done it before? I can’t find any situation where planning Jesus out of the picture is a good thing. Have you planned your family so perfectly and some sort of way Jesus fell out of the plans? I know that I have made this mistake. I know that I need to change it. I’m taking that step. Wanna join me?

11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

This passage is taken from 1 Kings. It’s the story of the well known prophet Elijah. He had just finished making the prophets of Baal look stupid and everyone was trying to kill him. Jezebel had even sent word that she was looking for him. I won’t go into the WHOLE story, but the passage up above comes when the Lord speaks to Elijah while he is in a cave. I was looking through this passage when something hit me. This still, small voice packed a punch.

When I was younger, this passage was used for many sermon wrap ups. As the preacher was winding down and “bringing it to a close” they would always mention how God doesn’t always come in the fire and God doesn’t always come in the earthquake, but in a “stiiiiiiiiillll…..small voice…” Then the church would go crazy and the music would start. The inference was always that we were looking for God to do that miracle so we would know He was there, but sometimes it was when we were quiet that He was speak to us and would bless us that way. And that made sense, especially since we were all looking for our blessing. Or something like that. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that this whole passage is wrapped in controversy. And that this still, small voice just told Elijah to handle some folks. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun is coming his way. So I got to thinking…am I the only one who was led to believe that the still, small voice was there for my blessings only? So I ask that question to you readers. This is an interesting situation to me. The older I get and the more I study and listen to people, I realize that we leave things out sometimes, or we will ‘adjust’ a scripture to make it fit a subject. Sometimes during that process we end up changing what was originally said which, in case you were wondering, is in fact wrong. This one is a little bit different in the fact that they didn’t change anything, they left things out. That silly omission. I challenge you to read the whole story because you will in fact see that the still, small voice brought a punch.

God has no problem getting our attention. He can definitely use fires and earthquakes and tornadoes. But sometimes, He needs us to really listen. There are times when I have to sit my kids down and give them instruction. When I get to something that I really want them to grasp, I get as close to them as I can and do my best to clear all distractions. I want to make sure that we are on the same page. When God speaks softly for the same reason. He wants us to be free of distractions. That doesn’t mean that everything He says is sweet and lovely and warm fuzzy. It just means, “Listen close. Don’t jack this up!” What comes after that is something you better pay close attention to. Write it down.

What is God trying to tell you? Are you not getting it because you’re expecting the small voice to contain sweet messages of happiness and chocolate? Make sure to give Him your full attention. Listen closely. You do NOT want to miss that message.

I’ll start off by saying congratulations to the Alabama Crimson Tide for winning the BCS National Championship. That was one of the most dominant performances I think I’ve ever seen, especially in a bowl game of that magnitude. Not that any of you REALLY care, but I did not have a dog in this fight, as I am an Oklahoma Sooner fan first and an Arkansas Razorback fan second. But I love college football and it was the last game of the year. I won’t get into how jacked up the BCS is or the fact that these two shouldn’t have been playing again in the first place. Email me if you wanna go there. But if you did happen to watch this game last night, you’ll notice that is was a shut out. That doesn’t happen much at the college level, and definitely not between two teams of this skill level. But Alabama had such a strong defense that LSU couldn’t cross the 50 yard line until there were only 4 minutes or so left in the GAME! Even then they only got a few yards in and got turned away. As a fan of seeing lots of scoring and offense, you thought this game was horrible! We saw pretty much this same game from them back in November and didn’t want to see it again. If you like defensive strategies and seeing a team respond to the only loss the took on this season, then you loved what you saw. I was amazed at how strong, dominant and impenetrable that front 7 was for ‘Bama.

Okay, I’ll tie it all in now. There has been a trend for a few years now where it seems that the average Christian is losing the ability to defend their faith. We got stuck in the Sunday school portion of our learning and some of us didn’t go much past that so it seems. That’s why we can have the joke that when we were younger you could pretty much always answer ‘Jesus’ to a question and be right. 20 years ago people didn’t question Christianity and the Bible as openly as they do now. The thought across the board was that Jesus was enough so people didn’t really feel the need to go deeper than that. Now we get to an age where people are questioning if Jesus is really enough and what’s wrong with Buddha and Mormonism or even just believing what I feel. They aren’t running into much opposition because we as a people didn’t have much. It was as if we stood up Jesus cutouts and the rest of the world finally realized that was all that was standing in front of them. It was as if we had the strongest defense in the nation and they just never moved.

In the end, Jesus really is the answer to all the questions about other religions. He is the best defense that we have. I think Paul describes my thought process best in this passage in 1 Corinthians 2:

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,t did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The base of our defense is just that: Jesus and him crucified. I think where in the past the defense has looked shaky has been in the execution. The key comes from verse 5 of that passage. Our faith should not rest in our own wisdom, but in the power of God that is shown throughout His Word. If the kids down in Tuscaloosa are going to pull off what they pulled off last night, they have to know their playbook inside and out. The coaches make them sleep with them, carry them everywhere, and then they test them to make sure they are reading and studying them. It is one thing to say they have a plan to stop the run. It’s totally different when you show us how you do it. That comes from immersing yourself in the plan and having someone who coaches you through the strategy. In the same way, we can say that Jesus is our defense against all the things that stand before us. “He just is” is not quite strong enough to make people see and understand.

We have a powerful playbook that most of us have not read through. Our strategy is well chronicled if you we would take the time to look at it and pour through it. The power of God is a very intricate and complex defensive scheme that was carefully woven to not let anyone else through. Today people think that maybe Christ isn’t all that He’s cracked up to be. I would step out and say that He’s more than that. But we have been placed out of position and that creates holes in the defense.

When we as a people start to dig into the plan and really get an understanding of this playbook we have called the Bible, we will see that the answers that we have always needed were already there. We just had to look for them. Once we put that book deep in our hearts and minds we will realize that we have a reason to worship. It’s not about we could have done on our own. But in the spotless lamb who came to take away the sin of the world. That defense is airtight. I promise. And when you get to a point to where you can share that with confidence, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

So, this turned into a sermon. But I had to set up what I believe will become a recurring theme throughout this year. If we can properly deal with what Christ did for us and the importance of that in today’s world, it will truly transform the way we worship Him.

Even as I write that, I KNOW it’s a big question. I went back and forth trying to decide whether to write it or not. Guess who won? Anyway, we have wrapped up our first week of the new year and, at least in St. Louis, it has been GORGEOUS! I actually had a cookout on Friday because it was so nice. It has been an interesting start to the year, and everyone is bracing themselves for the cold that should have already been here.

I spend a decent amount of time on social media sites as I prepare for the week. I keep up with people’s Twitter accounts and check my Facebook timelines to see what’s going on. And, without fail, I’m always blessed with some nuggets of information that intrigue me. So far I’ve seen complete 180′s in a lot of people’s statuses from just last weekend. Last week, everyone was coming up with these cheesy cliches for the new year. “No Scheme of Hell in 2012″ or “Destined Not to Fail in 2012″ or “I’m Done Fooling with You in 20 -1-2″. But here we are just a week later and now I’m seeing the tables turn. “I can’t believe how I continue to let him get the best of me…” “I should have never let him back in my life. He is already cheating on me again…” How much stuff are these people getting into in the matter of a week? Maybe I’m just more inclined to not be involved in a lot of drama, but my goodness! We should be able to avoid some of the crazy at least long enough to validate our claims on this being a new year and a new us.

So the question begs to be asked…what is it that we are doing? What are we believing God for? Most of the people I see are talking about how they trust God to handle things and fix their job and get them a car and all these things. These are generally the same people who are in the midst of the drama in relationships and work and friendships. Are we believing that we can handle this stuff? Is that why we keep running into the wall head first and wondering why we have a headache? It’s amazing that we have someone who can handle each and every problem that we face, and even more that we will never see in our lifetime, yet we will not trust him enough to handle the cheater in our relationships. Or the boss who doesn’t recognize me. Or the person who cuts you off on the highway. Any of this sound familiar?

One week in I am learning that this love that Christ has for me is taking over my mind. I can’t believe that someone would find me so important to Him that he would die. He actually DIED! I have no other choice but to trust that He has my best interests at heart as He guides me through this life. Today’s set list at The Word at Shaw reflects the love that Christ shows us everyday. I’m believing Him for some big things this year. In the mean time, I’m also trying not to overlook the small things that He is doing constantly. So again, what are you believing Him for?

Sunday Set List 1.8.12

I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)

The Greatness of Our God

Beautiful One

Glory to God Forever

You Never Let Go

For the past couple months I’ve been reading through the Bible with a group of friends using the Inductive Study Method. If you’ve never heard of it, in short, it is a way to read through the Bible, catching key words and phrases that help you gain understanding of a passage. What we have found up to this point is that the story is being beautifully woven as we are being led to the cross. With that being said, this past week we made it to what is probably the most interesting story in the Bible. Period. If you don’t believe me, just go read it for yourself. There are some flat out crazy things that happen in the book of Numbers, but none crazier than this in chapter 22. Here enters our boy Balaam. Why do I call him our boy? Well, he’s the star of this show and by the end you’ll probably be able to input your name in his place. I know I was. Anyway, as the story goes, there’s a king that is trying to knock off the Israelites and wants Balaam to help him by asking God to go before him. Balaam asks the Lord and of course he says no. Balaam goes back and says that God said no. Balak said, here’s my kingdom and everything in it if you can get God to say yes. Balaam goes back and God says “are you an idiot?” Go if you want to and see what happens. Now we get to the good part.

Balaam being stupid (and obviously not married) goes with fervor thinking that God really said this was okay. He jumps on his donkey and starts on the trip. Three different times the donkey does things that impede him from making this trip, at one point crushing his foot. After repeated beatings, the donkey finally just says (yes, SAYS), “Why do you keep beating me? Have I done anything before that would cause you to think that I want to do you wrong? Why would I start now? I mean SERIOUSLY!!!” (MAJOR paraphrasing done by me Numbers 22:28-30) This actually invokes a conversation between the two. It isn’t until this conversation that Balaam realizes that he is an idiot and there was an angel blocking his path the whole time.

How many times do we completely ignore what is being said to us because of something that will bring us gain? I mean, simply put, Balaam was willing to go against the will of the Lord for money. Granted, it was a WHOLE lot of money, but still, it was money. We live in a world where people are getting killed over $200. Can you look back at the times when you knew God was telling you to do something and you kept trying to blow through the signs? What was the moment when your donkey started talking to you? I was gonna name this blog post “Talking Out Your Ass”, but I have a wife who thinks for me and decided that wasn’t a good idea. But so many times we have this moment after we get beat up that we realize that maybe, just maybe we shouldn’t be pursuing whatever it is we are blindly following.

One of the greatest parts of the study method we are using is the application part. After reading this story, I had to figure out what the application was in my own life. Well, I immediately thought about all the people that consider me their worship pastor. I am called upon to lead this people toward Christ in the things I say and do and sing. I was quickly floored by the amazing grace that was given us when Christ died on the cross for us. We cannot take that lightly. It is my job to make sure that we don’t forget that it is Jesus who stands in our place, repeatedly taking the beating that He didn’t deserve so I don’t have to suffer God’s wrath. There were a lot of Israelites that died because of their inability to have faith that God was taking care of them and ended up doing their own things. But, there would have been even more deaths had Moses not stepped in MANY times. We have a reason to worship Jesus. Let that be your fuel and passion for worship. If you are in the midst of a trial right now, take a second, sit down and listen to your donkey. She may be trying to keep you alive.