Praise.

Started our Exploration of Worship class today. We're reading through a book called "Exploring Worship" (how appropriate) by Bob Sorge. I'd definitely recommend it. Kal teaches this class, & just 5 pages into the book I'm already loving it. I never thought of "praise" & "worship" as two different things before. Usually the two are confused as one, but they're SO different! So many times I go to church & think, "Oh, well I don't feel like praising God today." But the thing is, PRAISE IS NOT CONTINGENT ON OUR FEELINGS! We can praise God even when we don't feel like it, because it's a one-way street! We are MEANT to praise Him, even if we aren't feeling like it or hearing anything from Him at that moment in time. Praise is about who God is & what He has done. It has nothing to do with us! Basically, praise is a decision. We decide to do it & whether we want to or not, it's something that should be done daily. What a wake-up call to realize that how I feel or the current state of my emotions DOESN'T MATTER. The thing is, we always feel like hypocrites when we praise God when we aren't feeling it because Satan tells us it is so. But wouldn't it make sense that he wouldn't want us to praise God, so he plants these things in our minds? This might not be a revelation to anyone but me, but it's nice to know that I'm not the only emotional basketcase that thought you have to be jumping off the walls shouting about God's grace every sunday morning for praise to be sincere.

And speaking of emotions...Kal made a solid point when saying that praise has nothing to do with our feelings. We're a group of musicians. Emotions tend to run a bit higher with us than normal people. But JL made a great illustration of what emotions should be, which Kal shared with us today, "Emotions are great to have in the backseat of the car, along for the ride, but they should never be driving." I can definitely say I've been letting my emotions drive me for the last...oh...7 years? That I can recall, anyway, I've always been a pretty emotional person. I'm definitely going to be keeping that in check from now on...especially when it comes to praising God every morning during worship. After all, God is always the same; my emotions are not.

After Exploration of Worship we had more V&C with JL concerning present-day apostles & the building of a church. It was definitely interesting. It's quite different than any church I've been to, but I don't think either way is wrong. Some more effective than others maybe, but hey. I could talk for three more paragraphs on this subject but it would just be a bunch of theology & I'm sure I wouldn't explain it the right way & end up talking myself into a circle. We had that class split into two parts, & then concluded round 2:00, which was nice. I came home & took a nap, & now I've just woken up to write this to all you lovely people who read my blog. Haha.

Tomorrow class ends at noon & I have my first drum lesson at 1:30. So excited! I'm glad we haven't ended up starting worship teams yet...it will be good to get a lesson first & work out some of the kinks.