Shaun Groves
Last night Gabriella and I sat at the kitchen table doing her creative writing homework. She’s working her way through several kinds of poetry from different cultures and periods in history: haiku, limericks, etc, and now psalms.
After we read some different kinds of psalms – lamenting, praise, thanksgiving – it was her job to write one. All she had to do last night was come up with a few potential first lines that would let a reader know they were about to read a psalm of praise. So, like a lot of worship song writers, she the first thing she wrote was very much like what she’s heard before, something very bible-ish sounding: I will raise my hands and praise you Lord.
I let it pass.
But the other options she came up with were just as non-eight year-old. They sounded spiritual, technically “right”, but she had no idea what they meant. So I intervened a little.
“Do you raise your hands when you sing to God at church?”
“Sometimes,” she said.
“Why do you do that?”
“I don’t know?” she said.
“Well, what are you thinking or feeling when you decide to raise your hands?”
She sat silent for a minute. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Take a guess,” I said. “Why do you think you raise your hands?”
Another long pause and then honesty: “Because all my friends are doing it.”
I praised her for being so honest. I told her I’ve done that too. Then we talked about kings and how sometimes people worship kings by bowing down to them or raising their hands. It’s a way of saying You’re stronger and more powerful than I am. You’re smarter and better than I am. You’re in charge of me. I’ll do what you want me to do. It shows respect and it shows very clearly who’s the boss.
We talked about how God is smarter, stronger and better than we are so it’s probably a good idea for us to let him be in charge of us. Things will work out better that way, we decided. But, we also decided, it’s not a good idea to tell God he’s in charge of us if we really want to be in charge of us. That’s lying, we figured.
“So, now that we know all that, do you want to write that you’ll raise your hands and praise God?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” she said.
And you know, honestly, sometimes I’m not either.
Bill Whitt says:
First– What a great idea for a devotional time with the family!!! I’d like to give that a try.
Second– I think you’ve successfully proven that even an eight-year-old can write what, unfortunately, passes for worship songs today… something I’ve suspected for a long time.
Third– I agree that honesty is key in songwriting. I’ve been stymied in my songwriting for a while now, not content to just regurgitate the same ol’ phrases. I’ve been feeling the need to write songs of questioning and even lament. But I’m not sure how to start. I hope you’ll post about how you’re guiding your daughter to write honestly… and in the process teach me the same thing!
Deidre says:
Great post, Shaun.
We’ve had conversations this week with our 7 year old about what worship is. After a long explanation, she came to the conclusion she believes some people are ‘lying’ because they ‘worship’ and then turn around and live how they want. Perceptive for a 7 year old.
Shawn Wood says:
Hey. This is Shawn with a “w” from Georgia. Met you at Woodstock on Sunday.
I think it is awesome that you had this honest talk with your daughter! Wow, what if we would all look at why and how we worship. That word was in my Bible Study homework today. Greek and Hebrew meaning is Worth-ship, I thought that was very cool.
Keep doing what you do! Your songs and this post challenge me. Still thinking about the post that said we don’t have to do anything or say right words for God to show up. (Man that sat beside you on plane)
Have a great week
keith says:
I find it odd when we sing songs at church with lyrics like “We lift our hands in the sanctuary,” but no one is actually lifting their hands.
I find myself wanting to change the lyrics to better reflect reality. Something like…
We wear khaki pants in the sanctuary
or
We keep our mouth shut in the sanctuary
or
We don’t bring coffee into the sanctuary
and so on.
Amanda May says:
Oh, what an awesome conversation you got to have with your little girl.
This reminds me of what the pastor at my church stopped worship to talk about this past Sunday.
We were singing “I Surrender All”. Some people were worshiping with their hands up, some weren’t…it’s all good…God is fine both.
Our pastor was explaining that by lifting our hands in worship, we are assuming the posture of surrender.
I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but I like it.
Carly says:
Sometimes our heads don’t want God to be in charge of us even while our hearts know it’s the very best thing ever.
Sometimes we raise our hands in worship, in surrender, even when we don’t feel like it or even believe it. We do it because in sacrificing our praise, our heads can come along side our hearts and much fruit comes from that.
I don’t condone the idea of simply going through the motions, but sometimes the sacrifice of doing so, leads us into a deeper and very honest worship.
David says:
Man, if people actually thought through what they were saying and whether they actually meant they’d do what the worship song says they’ll do, the entire Christian music industry might not be stuck in such an uncreative rut right now. It feels like nearly every worship album out there is trying to match the success of the early works of SonicFlood, Delirious?, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, etc., and as much as I respect those guys, as soon as you repeat it by rote, it kind of loses its power.
I’ve noticed that some modern worship artists are becoming more aware of the “social justice” angle and incorporating related thoughts and ideas into their songs, most notably in the CompassionArt project that happened recently… unfortunately, that was a better idea in theory than it turned out to be in practice. But I think they’re on the right track nonetheless. Singing flowery songs to God is worthless if we’re not out there loving the ones God loves.