It Isn't About Me.

It isn't about me. It isn't about me. It is NOT about me.

Many times those are just words with no meaning behind them. The words to say in a conversation about leading worship or music to make the other person believe I am humble.

But I have been reminded of it the past few days, listening to Jimmy Needham's album "Nightlights". The track "The Reason I Sing" is possibly the most powerful song I have heard in a long while. It a so brutally honest from the point of view of musicians wanting more.

Read some of the lyrics:

I'm always looking for the limelight

To dim my house and make the stages bright

Compared to You I'm just a night light

Against the blazing sun

I enter rooms and hope they notice me

To fill my social insecurities

I'm asking if there's any hope for me

Cuz there is room for only one

Cuz even accolades someday will fade away

Oh just like me

Yes everything but You, yeah

And many years from now it won't matter

How I write the rhymes I do, yeah

Help me get back to the reason I sing for You

Why are we so convinced a bigger audience

Is simply common sense to have?

Maybe success is measured best

By nothing less then our obedience

So if I'm destined for a small stage

The small crowds and the small pay

Then maybe even in a small way

I can bring You fame

I have listened to this over and over again, reminding myself that I am not: (a) "all that and a bag of chips", (b) worthy of any praise, (c) God.

I have said many times that I want to glorify God through my music. But how often is that the sole reason that I sing and write? Many times that is, indeed, a reason, but about the 3rd or 4th reason in a list of 5.

How different would worship services be if the worship leaders truly believed that statement. It isn't about me. If they put God's glory before everything? Christianity would not be in the decline that it is, if you ask me.

How many times have I been guilty of leading worship, but selfishly seeking my own glory, and as a consequence of that- caused someone to miss out on a chance to meet God.

But I must remember, we all must, that it isn't about me. And by "it", I mean everything and anything.