In the chaos You see the glory
From the wreckage, light is shining through
So open up these weary eyes
All around me color's changing
Though I'm broken, hope is breaking through
As You open up these weary eyes
I wanna see what You see
Come and rearrange me
Let Your love be my kaleidoscope
Change me from the inside
Show me what it looks like
Let Your love be my kaleidoscope
You fill my world with childlike wonder
Every face, reflections of your heart
As You open these weary eyes
Weary eyes
Heaven's eyes, heaven's sight
Fill my heart, fill my life
- Kaleidoscope
Worship has never just been about singing, but rather living out a life filled with compassion, justice, and praise. It’s not enough to shout anthems of God's love, and as a worship leader, this is perhaps the most difficult thing for me to admit. There’s nothing I love more than music; making melody and singing to God. I’ve dedicated my entire life to providing a soundtrack for the next generation to spiritually connect with Him in the most authentic way I know how. However, the minute I lose sight of the people around me, I lose vision of Jesus himself, who says,
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Biblical Christian worship is less like opening up one of those singing holiday Hallmark-cards, and more like peering through a kaleidoscope. When you look through a kaleidoscope, everything changes. Colors and shapes rearrange. When we see the world through heaven's eyes, we can't help but show compassion for the world that God so loves. When we look at people through the lens of the cross, we can't help but lay down our own lives for the very people Jesus bled and died for. It’s not enough to just sing about HOW He loves. We were created to care, serve, and even sacrificially love WHO He loves. Jesus paid too great a price for us on the cross for us to merely gloss over the oppressed, the marginalized, and the hurting. In fact, the prophet Amos declares that worship, when not accompanied with justice is just noise…
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
I’m afraid we're living in a time when the Church is more worried about how we sound then who we serve. The early Church used to be a counter-cultural, non-violent, unified movement under the leadership of its radical leader, Jesus. I want to be a part of that Church. I want to join the early disciples who chose to love not only their neighbors, but even their enemies in the face of empire.
“DEAR FRIENDS, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER, FOR LOVE COMES FROM GOD. EVERYONE WHO LOVES HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD AND KNOWS GOD. WHOEVER DOES NOT LOVE DOES NOT KNOW GOD, BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE. THIS IS HOW GOD SHOWED HIS LOVE AMONG US: HE SENT HIS ONE AND ONLY SON INTO THE WORLD THAT WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM. THIS IS LOVE: NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON AS AN ATONING SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS. DEAR FRIENDS, SINCE GOD SO LOVED US, WE ALSO OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN GOD; BUT IF WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER, GOD LIVES IN US AND HIS LOVE IS MADE COMPLETE IN US.”