Happiness: The Elusive Target of Worship
Why do I do these things? I THINK it’s because I like when people discuss things. I like seeing multiple sides of a conversation. I like to see how the sparkle and how each one stands up to pressure. Probably why I like diamonds. Or something like that…
For as long as I’ve been leading worship in the church, there have been MANY opinions about the way things should go. Some people share their opinions with you. Some don’t. But there are always opinions. I learned that you have to listen to them presently and consider them privately. Or at least that’s how it works for me. Why? I’m an internal processor and it takes me a while to work through a concept or an idea. Also, people are passionate about their ideas and if you don’t totally agree with them and I don’t think through it up front I could end up doing some damage to that relationship. Private consideration allows me to really dig into the words that are said and prepare a proper response. One word that I hear a lot is happy. One word I don’t hear a lot is joy. I believe that there is a difference in these two and in some ways this difference is causing some real difficulties in today’s church.
Happiness is a tough thing to shoot for a couple reasons in my mind. The things that make us happy don’t change. But the things around us change. So as things change sometimes we can become unhappy with a situation. Also, searching for happiness tends to be a backwards approach. As musical styles change, the we are introduced to things that we may have never heard before. We may or may not like those things. And they don’t make us happy. And we tell the worship leader. This situation makes things hard for the worship leader because we can’t make everyone happy. It’s not our job because it’s virtually impossible. Have we tried before? Yes, that’s why we all know it doesn’t work. Ask one and they will tell you.
I believe that the trap we fall into is looking for the church or musical style to make us happy. We all have differing levels of happiness. That’s part of the reason we have so many denominations in the Protestant church. When we can shift our focus from what we like to who we’re worshiping then things start to come together. I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I lots of them. I know some that think TLR (Tony LaRussa for my non sports friends) is crazy. I know some thing think he’s a genius. He doesn’t make them all happy. But there’s one common interest that brings joy to both sides; the team themselves. No matter what we think about that one person, the overall team brings joy and those people can sit next to each other in the stands and cheer for the team because of that common joy.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t want to be happy. I like being happy. When it comes to worship, we should enjoy that as well. Sometimes, the situation won’t look exactly like what we want it to look like. That’s when we have to reach deeper and find what brings us joy. If that is the Gospel of Christ and his death, resurrection and coming return then you can find tons of people who share in that joy and worship together with them. You’ll also find tons of music to celebrate that fact. Is it your style? Maybe, maybe not. But if you let your long term joy take over instead of your short term happiness, you may find some of both at the same time. It could happen…
