psalms: and explosion of creativity

last night we walked from musical genre to musical genre as we explored the psalms.
[some of the songs played are listed on the video bar]

we had 'audio stations' in the hopes that people would become inspired by something they heard.

at each station a bible was open to a different psalm. our community was invited to read the psalm, listen to the music, watch a video solely about the face of jesus, or stare out the window and look at the waves crash on the beach, and then grab paper and pen and write some thoughts down.

the psalms capture the raw emotions of the human experience. anger, sadness, lonliness, despair, jubilation, remorse, feelings of abandonment, excitment, praise, ponderings...etc. you name it, it is in there.

so, last night we attempted to tap into that primal, creative part that links us with god and each other...and then spew that out onto paper.

for some this was not a pleasant idea...some simply sat quietly and enjoyed the music or art...some chatted and caught up with friends...others watched a jesus film...still others wrote poetry or drew pictures.

that's the great thing about experimenting in worship...you never know where you'll go.

at the end we gathered together to talk about the night and heather shared a poem that she wrote during this time. we decided to end the night with this poem as it was such a powerful example of artistic, verbal worship that we needed nothing further.

so...here it is...enjoy:

I loved her.

That was why I found sand scorching my feet, and air burning out my mouth, and a torrential shower of heat beating down from the arrogant sun.

I loved her.

I stopped eating; not because I wasn't hungry, but because I feared my appetite.

That was why I had left. I felt that appetite inside me, ready to devour all that was good and innocent about her.

She had already been through Hell.

I loved her.

I didn't want to lose her.Could the heat get worse? This -was- Hell, ready to gobble up anything cold or moist.

And then I saw her. She stood there, radiant in the glare.

In her outstretched hands was her heart.

It looked delicious and cool, and I knew that a single bite of it would fill my stomach and give me strength.But then I looked at her face. She was crying, her cheeks salty and red... and I realized that it was not her heart, but mine. "Take it," I whispered through parched lips. "You have been hungry for love longer than I have." As if she had been a cloud across the sun, she vanished and the heat returned with a vengeance.

I continued to walk.

I loved her, and though I refused her food, that gnawing appetite still remained.

I felt the sand slide through my toes as the land began to rise. Up and up I climbed, until I came to the dune's crest.

The sun glared and stole my sight in a blinding flash. I saw her again as I cowered away from the furious sky.

There she knelt at my feet, her head down, her dark hair like a shining river flowing across the sand. I loved her. She drew her hand across my sandal and tried to undo it."Show me that you love me," she breathed. I could feel the promise of cool water and fragrant oil smoothed over my hard, calloused feet. But I loved her. So instead, I knelt in front of her."Love is not a show."Again, she vanished.

I started descending the dune, stumbling through the amber grit.

The world disappeared around me in a haze of heat, and I could feel nothing but my stomach, still empty and demanding.

I loved her, and it hurt.

I wondered why I was still walking. She was a mirage - she did not exist.

She was dead. Why was I still walking?

I loved her.

But did she love me?

Would she ever love me?

Had it been yet another mirage?

I stumbled, and at that moment an overwhelming desire to stop - to lie down, to stop walking towards that hope in front of me - flooded through my body."I love... her..." I stuttered aloud. My dry tongue betrayed me - I had meant to say 'loved'. But it was right, it was true, and the words had an incredible effect on me.

I stood upright, walked straight, and raised my face defiantly towards the sun.

I love her.

She is not an appetite, she is not a craving.

I accepted the ache in my stomach as still being present,

and I continued walking. It could not tempt me, because I love her.

And she had become my need, my ache.

And all the pain, the heat and the weariness only made my love clearer and stronger.

So I walked until I came home, knowing that I love her.

And I will love her beyond giving up,

beyond despair,

beyond temptation and appetite.

No matter if she loves me or not,

I love her.

selah.

worship is not something we do...it is something we live.

become immersed in worship and nothing in life will ever be trivial again.

not music. not film. not art. not taking out the garbage. not shopping. not family. not friends. nothing..not even you.

for if we lose our life for christ...it is then that we find it.

see ya next week....