GIFT revisited

I went to GIFT again tonight and made an effort to learn every song I didn't know so I could sing to (at least) one chorus and one verse and, as contemporary praise and worship songs are apt to include, one bridge of some sort. Save for the phrase "My God is Mighty to Save," I had to learn every song they played, which was nice - the critical distractions of lyric and melody will be thrust onto another avenue than this blog. If you haven't read the post from... a few weeks ago, you should find it, skim through it and read the comments because they are great. Linsay Vladimirov (who might be reading this regularly now... which weirds. me. out.) and I met a little bit ago to talk about the nodes, trends, practices and design of praise and worship as a student, professional and leader. It's interesting to try and keep track of what goes through my head during praise and worship. Largely, my attempts to focus myself (not necessarily to clear, calm or numb my mind down) on breathing the words from inside and to my lips, with my buddy Mark and the old guy on my other side (which is, by the way, one of the best things - singing next to crotchety-seeming old people with voices from the 60s) along with the rest of the student body and Sioux Center community that gathered together on Sunday evening, bringing their trials and joys from the past week, and expectations for the coming one, in a conscious attempt to worship.* And if the thoughts running through this past week were cast with the veil of Linsay's admonishing of me (yes, that's what she did; she yelled. at me.) to get over myself and wake up and realize, of course, that there will always be flaws and distractions and mistakes and, most of all, decisions that are made largely according to preference. So, in brief, get over yourself and don't let your critical thoughts on how this song should go, how that transition was bad, what they didn't do (exactly like I did in the previous post) get in the way of you worshipping the Lord God Almighty.

And I had this realization mid-song tonight at this terrific point. I even had my arms crossed when I laughed to myself, thinking, "WHY would they do that?" I forget what EXACTLY they did, but I know and will admit that I did this a few times in the evening. Understandably, I stopped singing when I did this, and when I broke from the presence of worship, and stared at the lyrics up on the screen, trying to resolve the actual melody with my understanding of the melody. And I hesitated to start again with the song because, and this is a big deal - believe me - even if it doesn't seem so, I hesitated to start singing the song that I had previously laughed at because I was, of course, much too good for this song now. It had failed the very rigid and temperamental exam of my approval, like so many songs and people before it, but not a lot of foods. And I was too good to worship the Lord God Almighty with this song. It's OK. You don't have to hurl stones; I sang the rest of the song after laughing at myself.

I have a question though - when do you stop singing a song? What are the signs of melody, lyrics or execution from the band that will take you willingly out of the presence and sacrifice of worship?