surprised by ...

I have lilacs on my desk today -- they're really a marvellous thing. Growing up, we had lilacs at the end of our driveway, and they kind of remind me of exams, and tests, and being in school when I'd rather be outside.

But today, I was outside (albeit for a brief period of time). I dropped off an application for a major scholarship at the University today. The fact that I dropped it off at all is a God thing -- you see, I printed off the application in March. But forgot about it until last Friday. But, with the help of the people around me, I managed to get all the reference letters and short answer questions done, my transcripts printed, and the whole thing in by the deadline... (which was today.)

Now that I've said all that, I will now share with you the reason I entitled this post the way that I did...

This past weekend, I attended YC, which (for those of you who don't know) is a massive youth conference designed for junior high/high school kids. They bring in a bunch of big names, and pump everyone up with smoke machines and over-priced hotdogs. I got tickets this year for one reason, and one reason only.

David Crowder was coming.

So, against my better judgement, I acquired tickets, and Robbyn and I planned to go.

I'm extremely skeptical of all things "mass market", specifically on the worship front. Often when cds or books or products are marketed for Christians, they scream "YOU AREN'T LIVING FOR GOD UNLESS YOU'RE [listening to this cd, reading this book, wearing this t-shirt]. I find that "worship" cds are some of the worst things for this (pretty much second only to "Testa-mints" (spreading the WORD through good breath?) and cheap bible verse spinning tops. ).
I don't like to see worship as a commodity: you can't SELL worship.

You can sell a song, you can even sell best-seller songs, or #1 hit songs. But the WORSHIP -- that's more than a song. That's the heart attitude behind your life. That's the way we live.

Sure, you can worship through songs, but to sell music as THE WAY TO WORSHIP is not right.

Often, I find that conferences like these (although they may not intend to do this), often end up SELLING worship.

BUT, that is not the point of this post. That is only the background.

I went to YC.

David Crowder was great. He's a funny Texan with an amazing view of God, and of worship. The band was great.

The following band was not, semi-proving my own point in my own head. I was annoyed by the "mass market" approach to the concert, and we actually left half way through.

But we went back on Saturday to see United, who ended up suprising me by their honesty.

The biggest suprise for me, though, was Sunday morning. A band called Leeland played -- a young 18 yr old and a bunch of his church friends. But although I began skeptical, I ended up standing there and crying.

He knew what it was about. He GOT it -- worship is about God, and praising the one who redeemed us. He's 18, and he's got it. Everything he said, everything he did, everything that he sung -- it all pointed to God, and encouraged the 16000 people at YC to praise God.

I was surprised and blessed and challenged by a young guy, who chases hard after God, and worships him with all his heart.

May we all come to that point on our journey, where we seek hard after God, and find him. May we all learn to worship better and better, offering our lives as living sacrifices.

May we fix our eyes on God, the author and finisher of our faith.