A kazoo and a hand drum

are tools for worship.

Hope Overflow (the service trip worship band I'm a part of) played at Nazareth Lutheran Church this morning in Cedar Falls, IA. We do this every once in a while as a part of our service to the greater Cedar Valley community. I always love rocking for the Lord, playing songs of praise and getting lost in the beauty and power and meaning of the music.

I've found lately that my faith has been unfocused, sort of going through the motions sometimes. I often find myself in this rut when I get back to school after a great summer working at Bible camp. The world catches me in its clutches, and I fall back. Sometimes even when I'm at church, discussing in Bible study, or playing with Hope O, I don't feel like I'm really "doing it right".

This morning, though, I saw something that made me think.

In the front pew of the congregation were some people who looked like they might be down on their luck for a variety of reasons, perhaps living out of a shelter, maybe from a group home, who knows. One man had a small hand drum with him, the kind with a strap to put around your neck like you may've had when you were younger. He also had an orange kazoo.

As I was looking around the congregation during the hymns, I caught a glimpse of this man.

There he was, playing his drum right along with us, and kazooing, too. I could sometimes hear him drumming, not always on beat, but it didn't matter. He was praising God the way he wanted to, the way that spoke best to him. He didn't care if he wasn't the best musician ever. No one went over to him at any point in the service to ask him to stop, and I'm very thankful of that.

abandon-a complete surrender to natural impulses without restraint ormoderation;

freedom from inhibition or conventionality: to dance with reckless abandon

This man's reckless abandon for worship is awesome.

I want to be like him, to not mind what I sound like, to relish in imperfection, to have joy because I am bringing God joy by praising him.

Everyone has gifts, everyone has things they love to do. Find a way to use that for God's glory, no matter what it is. Have the right intentions--those of glorifying God--and just about anything you do can be refocused toward Him.

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do or say,

do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Keep on playing, drum and kazoo man. God loves what you do.