Mountain + Snow + Jesus = Humble Pie

This past Valentine's weekend I was blessed with the most awesome opportunity to lead worship at the high school winter retreat Snowed In.  It was incredible!!! God really moved! Not only in the hearts of the students, but in the hearts of the leaders, and in my heart.
(Picture above: Blayne (speaker), Myself, and David.)


As a worship leader you get a ton of spotlight. A TON.  Lead worship once and all of a sudden everyone knows who you are, knows you can play an instrument, knows you can sing, and for whatever reason, thinks your cool (which is a first for me, and I personally don't mind.).  But it brings me to the concept of humbleness, and how, as a leader in the spotlight, I should live it out.

Being humbled is often equated with being humiliated: getting embarrassed.  Which is true in many situations! But being humble and being humiliated are two different things!  Though, like I said, sometimes they do converge into the same instance.  Take for example one the most humbling, and humiliating, experiences I've ever had.  I had nailed leading worship for the first time by myself at the high school youth group: the Spirit moved, lives were changed, and I thought I was awesome.  The next week at Jr. High youth group I planned on doing the same thing.  I had the "I've got this all by myself" attitude.  Boy was I in for a huge awakening.  Practice that Tuesday went horrible! I couldn't focus, my band wasn't with me, I became frustrated, and then I quit.  Just like that.

That's when I got it.

Worship isn't about me as the leader.  Isn't about the band playing.  It's not even about the music. It's about Jesus, and ONLY Jesus.  This is the most important concept about worship leading!! For all you musicians, worship leaders, young and old alike, if you get anything get this: Worship is ALL about the G-Man, and absolutely nothing to do with yourself.  If you're not worshiping Jesus on that stage then don't be on the stage at all.  (But I'm diverging onto a tangent! This blog is supposed to be about humbleness!)
This last weekend at Snowed In, God showed me I don't need to be embarrassed to be humbled.  Thank You God!  As I was on that stage, worshiping my heart out and watching 100+ students and leaders worshiping their hearts too, I found myself incredibly humbled and amazed.  My Mighty God was using me!  A broken and imperfect being.

That's when I realized it seems that God uses me the most when I am broken, vulnerable, surrendered, and humbled before Him.  The whole week before Snowed In and every time I picked up my guitar I prayed that God would keep me humble and that everything was His. Every part of me, every fear, every hope, everything! How did I know that this is what would work, that God would use me even more? Because this is what Jesus did: He humbled Himself.

Phillipians 2:5-8  ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  ⁶Who, being in very nature God, not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man,  he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! (NIV)

In this case, Jesus was not being embarrassed (though dying on the cross during the Roman era was incredibly shameful, this is not the point I am trying to make).  Christ "made himself nothing"!! God didn't embarrass Him with a horrible performance.  Jesus was humble because He gave up everything! Made Himself nothing.  And this wasn't exactly what Jesus wanted...making yourself nothing and surrendering completely is painful and difficult.

Matthew 26:39  ³⁹ He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (NLT)
He prayed this prayer three times!! 
Matthew 26:44 ⁴⁴ So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again. (NLT)

But He did it, and the entire humanity was saved because of Him.  So are you willing to be humbled? To give up everything?

I know this is something I struggle with daily.  But God has called me to be humble. To surrender my hopes and dreams.  My wants and needs.  My fears and failures. To come broken to Him and give up everything.

There are some relationships I'm desperately trying to hold onto. God has called me to let go.  There are pride issues involving my performance in school. God has called me to let go.  There are desires for what I want to be doing right now.  God has called me to let go.  I have been called to make myself nothing and to humble myself.  And I want to!  But this road isn't going to be easy...it hurts a lot.  It's not fun.  But I'll have to continue to trust my Jesus and know His will is best.  I want His will to be done, not mine. 


Romans 12:1 ¹ And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.