It is interesting where you can find the little sparks of inspiration that ignite creativity. I've been racking my brain to come up with a set list for next Sunday and gotten nowhere. Not sure where I wanted to go with a list, I wasn't sure where to start. Most big department stores have the counter where the girl sits and tries to sell expensive perfume to unwitting husbands. After some time, when all of the little bottles with fancy emblems smell the same, they give you a cup of coffee beans to "clear your palate". Then the many fragrances that are inspired by actors, basketball player and, pop singers again come to life with their own unique blend of chemicals made to mimic sandalwood and lilac.
Today I needed to clean my palate. A great exercise that I recommend to everyone is to find a cd in the back of your collection that you haven't touched for years. If you have an ipod, this works even better. Find a cd that didn't make the digital playlist, and put it in again. There is always a reason that the cd has sat silently in it's case for years, but there is also a reason that the cd found it's way into your world. Today, that cd was the Unplugged recording of Dashboard. How to get from Dashboard to Sunday morning worship? Here we go.
The beauty of this recording is in the recording itself. It is mixed to include alot of the house noise that went on during the show. No doubt, this was inspired by Chris Cabrera throughout the set pulling away from the mic and allowing the audience to become the lead voice. Two things I notice: He now has brought me into the room for the event, and the audience into the room of the song. The people at the show made the song, and the event theirs. In the five or six songs I'm selecting, how am I going to make the event theirs? What can I do to help them be alone in their room?
"I worship You alone in the silence, I worship You alone in this room" Redding Celebration Band "Alone in this Room." "Lord put aside the distractions that keep me from You." Which led me to the paraphrase of Isiah 25 that Gretchen read in the cd recording.
And it will be said on that day: "behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.
Digging for songs that lead my heart to this verse, I came across an excerpt about the song "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" that gives an account for the inspiration for this song.
http://igracemusic.com/igracemusic/hymnbook/hymns/o08.html#history Written by a man who thought his life was milestoned by major tragedy, the overtone of the song is that the Lord's love is steadfast. George Matheson lost his sight, his fiance', and his sister who cared for him till she was married. It was on her wedding night that he wrote of the love of Christ that will not let go of him. Man will move on, or die, but the love of the father is eternal. It is in this Love that we find strength.
So here we are. My mind is fresh and renewed, my set is done, and my joy is complete!
