Borrowed Worship

Can you borrow the intangible? Can you give away what was never yours to hold?
The answer is yes—it happens every Sunday. Ideas, words, connections: these are my native tongue. Singing? Choruses? Shape-notes? Not so much. And yet, every week, I borrow those gifts from you. I’m swept up in your harmonies; my soul soars on your melodies—even though I couldn’t tell one from the other. Those shape-notes might as well be hieroglyphs recounting the myths of the Pharaohs—they mean almost nothing to me.
Week after week, you share a gift that was never yours to keep. It is a gift realized only in the act of giving. Worship is rightly directed toward God—a pleasing aroma in the throne room, a veritable feast. Yet within that feast are crumbs, and like a grateful beggar, I’m overjoyed just to be at the table—even if my only vocal offering is the collection of scraps I’ve gathered from you.
Chad recently wrote about incorporating microphones into our worship service. You have no idea how thrilled that makes me. Some days I struggle to hear my part. Some days I don’t know when to sing my part. Most days, I’m not even sure what part I am!
Let me be clear: the microphones aren’t for the gifted singers (though they hold them). They’re actually for people like me—people who struggle to worship vocally. I’m deeply grateful to belong to a church family that so freely shares this beautiful, intangible gift.
So thank you—for lending what can’t be owned, for proclaiming what I cannot sing (well), and for sharing such a special moment with me and my family each week.

-Lance Havens