Saturday, October 21, 2006

Final Sermon

At a large city church, sitting in a pew, fully dressed in fall clothes listening to a Creation band.
Not nearly as awesome as the summertime version - but worth battling hours of traffic for.

Sandra and I went to Broadway Church to hear Parachute Band. (Broadway was hosting the Unite in Worship Conference, so the event was geared towards an audience of mostly worship band leaders.)
The concert was excellent.
I went, having a need to "be filled" as my day had been draining. I didn't go in to work on this sunny, warm glorious autumn day. I stayed at home and sparred with Max about the necessity of an education. For him. I've got mine. He is not convinced he needs one. Or that the aquiring of one should take precedence over, say, napping, or watching TV, or playing a computer game.
I hit the highway exhausted by the mental gymnastics I had engaged in all afternoon.

But here's the thing about worship.
It's not about the filling up of the one doing the worshipping.


It's about praising God. Period.

But the by-product of reaching out to worship the One who creates all things, is that He reaches down and touches the hearts of those who are praising Him. And when the God of love touches your heart, a nice, soft, warm, glow fills you up.

Like I said, the concert was wonderful. Simply wonderful.

And it would have been enough.

I wasn't expecting anything else.

But there was more.
An incredible "more".
A speaker.
A speaker named Chris Seay from Texas.

Ever heard of him?
Neither had I.

He is best friends with David Crowder.
Yuh.
That's what we thought...David Crowder! The guy we drove 4 hours for last month. To hear three songs. THAT David Crowder.

He and David started this church in Waco, Texas 11 years ago. Chris was the pastor. David was the worship leader. Their church was made up of mostly university students and the 40 year old vineyard hymns weren't cutting it, so Chris said to Dave - "Here. I bought you a guitar. Go write some worship songs."
And, yes, the rest is history.
Except the story doesn't end there.

A few years later, Chris left Waco and moved to Houston. A friend of Chris's, Kyle Lake became the pastor of that University Baptist Church.
Last year, on Oct 30, 2005, while Kyle was in the baptismal tank preparing the baptize a young woman, he reached out to straighten the microphone and was electrocuted to death in front of the entire church congregation and his young family. Along with his wife, he left behind his 4 year old twin sons and a 6 year old daughter.

He never got the chance to preach the sermon he had prepared.
But his notes were opened and this is what he was planning to share:

Live. And Live Well.
BREATHE.
Breathe in and Breathe deeply.
Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now.
On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.
If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE.
Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.
If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.
Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed.
If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own.
If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well.
At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven.

And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift.




Thank you Kyle for writing those words.
Thank you Chris for sharing them with us.


This weekend is the Surrey International Writer's Conference. I am not going for the first time in 6 years. I just don't fancy myself a writer. And the last two times I went I was not inspired in any way to continue pretending I was.

But tonight.
Tonight, as Chris challenged all the worship leaders and song writers in the crowd to "find their voice and share their story" - I was motivated to keep blogging.

I will likely never write anything as profound as some of David Crowder's song lyrics. Or as moving as Kyle Lake's last sermon. But I can share my thoughts on what it means to be a woman of faith.

And for now, that's more than enough.



Although being able to share pix too would have been fun...



Read Chris Seay's blog entry regarding his friend Kyle's passing here.
And that poem above? Chris read it tonight as part of his message.
The poet is a friend of his.

1 comment:

My Thots said...

I really wish I could have gone with you but then I wouldn't have been home to get the phone call from my new boss that assured me that to fail the first time was normal and that we would keep working together until I am licenced and that he is going to use "my" business card for the Europe calendar!
I think that Chris Seay has a relative that has a CD. Look up Robbie Seay band and see what you think.