What I Sing Needs to be Seen....

In completion of our first week of training with CTI, here are a few thoughts.

This past week has been a crazy, whirl-wind of events and emotions. In the last week, life has drastically changed for all 15 of us full-timers. We've had to say hard good-byes to loved friends and family, meet a bunch of random, crazy, Jesus-loving people who we will be spending the next year traveling with, try to put together 24 rep songs as a full-band, adapt to living in host homes, learn how to share a relevant testimony with those we come in contact with, and most importantly, we've been entrusted to keep up with our one-on-one time with the Lord in the midst of the chaos. Needless to say, it has been a crazy week! Praise God that He sustains and give us strength. He is so very gracious. Amongst all of this change and "newness" to life right now, I know I can definitely praise God for one thing in particular over all, and that is for how He is drawing me closer to Himself by putting me in this position. There's something so amazing and comforting about having that raw dependency on God. A common theme that has come up this week for us full-timers has been 2 Corinthians 12:9: "Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses. What a mind-blowing thought. I have also found, as we've been practicing our rep music, that a lot of the songs we will be doing this year have applied to me personally right now. In one of our songs, "Love Come to Life," Big Daddy Weave writes "Has my life been an empty voice? What I sing needs to be seen." This line in this song has been so convicting for me, because even though as full-timers we have committed to being set apart for ministry for a year, we still battle the same struggles and temptations as everyone else. The other day at training we talked about how easy it is to let physical and spiritual laziness creep in throughout the year. After a long day of training it's easy to say "Oh, I've spent the whole day doing something for the Lord so I can skip my personal devo time tonight," or "All day I've been around people; I just want to hibernate in my room and not worry about investing in the people around me." While rest is never a bad thing, it has been easy to be selfish with any "time off." In all reality, our lives are our ministry. It's not just the time spent as a team, or the time spent playing concerts that constitutes as our "ministry." It's how we live our lives. What we sing needs to be seen. The hope and love that we, as a team, present from the stage needs to be lived out personally in our own lives. Actions speak so much louder than words,Christ needs to be evident through how we live. The fact that we get to use words is just a bonus. In Romans 15, vs. 1b-3a, Paula writes: "We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn't live to please himself." This year we will be focusing on sharing the hope of Christ as well as encouraging the church, so if our lives are not an encouragement to others, and we're not building others up in the Lord, then what are we doing? If Christ, the Son of God, didn't live to please himself, then we certainly shouldn't either. All that we do, and all that we are, should reflect the love of Christ. What we sing needs to be seen!