Man, sometimes life gets in the way of blogging.

Last night and this morning we had an informal gathering of some worship songwriters. It was a good time, if tiring. I had forgotten the kind of energy required to co-write with even just one person, let alone 6 or 7! Coming home today, i felt exhausted and a little frustrated that we hadn’t gotten as far as I’d like to have gotten. We are aiming toward a project and writing songs that are meant to be used in a congregational setting. It’s a lot harder to write for a congregation than you’d think – it’s a tall order. Depth of lyrics and truth captured in those lyrics somehow by the Spirit’s inspiration, fitting the right ideas into the right words and fitting those words in the right meter. Coming up with a chord progression that is fresh and yet somehow familiar, keeping the melody within range of men and women, keeping the melody repetitive enough to be memorable but no so repetitive as to be monotonous. Figuring out the verse order, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, tag (if need be), coming up with interesting instrumental hooks, setting the right tempo (and keeping that tempo!), all the while not forgetting actual worship through the song.

I was reminded tonight of the dynamic between cost and reward. The more valuable the reward, the greater the cost to be paid to secure it.

As I got in my car, I put on transMission’s latest cd, “The World for God” (CD Baby, iTunes), a project I am proud to have been a part of – it’s the greatest thing that transMission has done so far, but I have to remember everything it took to get there. At this stage of the project that we’re currently working on, it can be a bit tense and limbo-ish at times. I have to remember that this is all the birthing process and that sometimes it isn’t easy. But it is definitely worth it, and the guys involved have definitely been cranking out some worthy stuff so far. I’m looking forward to even more ingenuity and creativity and a Holy Spirit bathed project from beginning to end.

I heard on television tonight that an art gallery was holding an exhibition of some famous painter (still alive). The artist was in attendance at the event, and, much to the shock of the organizers of the event, when the doors were opened, he made his way to one of his paintings, took out his brush and started making changes!! He replied to those who asked what he was doing that the work wasn’t finished yet. (If anyone knows the name of the artist, please let me know, I missed it.)

This got me thinking about church.

If you think about the Church (that is, the universal Church, the Bride of Christ) in terms of a magnificently painted landscape from the hand of the Creator Himself, I have a feeling that oftentimes we sit back and look at what we think is a finished picture, when God still has His apron on and palette and brushes out, if you will.

I’m not implying anything about the nature of God or truth. God (and truth itself) is unchangeable and unchanging. What I’m talking about here is the form and methodology of what we think of as church. Sometimes I think we haven’t the slightest idea of what we’ll look like in the next twenty or fifty or even a hundred years – and that, maybe, we’re just too satisfied with our “landscape” now to begin to dream about the “exceedingly abundantly more” God wants to do. I know that, in my own life, my dreams are often too small – I have yet to be swallowed up into the GREAT purpose of a God who is from everlasting to everlasting. Instead, I get bogged down in the miniature portrait of the here and now.

I think the question we need to ask ourselves is not, “How will God fulfill my life?”, but, “Am I willing to be swallowed up in something infinitely greater than myself, dying to sin and self that the glorious time-transcending mind of the Creator can have His way through me?” Let’s let Him finish the painting.