Every evening I am responsible for giving the devotion and prayer prior to dinner for our staff, volunteers, shelter men, and dinner guests. In training, I am supposed to follow in the same devotional process of my predecessor while she is away on a 2-week vacation.
The process is to read a couple to several verses from the Bible straight through. Always choosing the next 5+ verses then reading the life application process. Reading the Bible is a hard read, especially a handful of verses at a time, more especially if you don't know God or He isn't a priority in life.
If this method is uninspiring to me as a Christian, my reading verbatim must be a painful process to sit through in order to eat dinner.
Lucky them that I am a boundary stomper!
I had to change it up a bit and flex my muscles to test the crowd. A couple of times I did an inspirational devotion that had touched my heart, it was well received. I've opened it up and let others say the evening prayer for variety sake and found a young guy from a Christian college, an excited, over-the-top Christian, and dynamic prayer warrior that reminded me so much of my brother starting off in his ministry. He was a breath of fresh air. On the days where I am reading straight through the Bible, I've searched and found funny Christian jokes to open up the evening with. Their laughter breaks what used to be former silence.
Last night was my crescendo.
I shared with them my experience when I heard Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill sing the duet How Great Thou Art in such a powerful way that I wondered who was the person and what was the inspiration behind the powerful words, "then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, how great thou art ..."
Speaking for a moment on the gentleman who wrote the poem in 1885 that became the song and his inspiration walking home one day to have a thunderstorm appear and the sights, sounds, and colors of such a majestic display that followed. A moment of awe in nature that gave praise to God and birth to the words.
I asked the room to remember the moments in their lives that were so pure, peaceful, and fulfilling that they offered up a silent, "Thank you, Lord." While nostalgia filled their minds, I played the beautiful hymn sung by Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill.
I confess I was nervous and wondered if this was pushing the boundary too far. The song began and I looked across the room where my new friend Clarence was standing, smiling, and shaking his head "Yes!" He has no idea how comforting his confirmation and support was to me.
The song is filled the dining room and I began to hear a woman on my left softly sing along to the old familiar hymn. To my right, I heard a couple of my shelter guys join in singing softly. Across the room I heard others join in.
The song was powerful and inside I was jumping up and down, they were enjoying it!
Powerhouse, country singer, Carrie Underwood is bellowing out "... how great thou art, HOW GREAT THOU ART!" and a roar of applause broke across the room!
Not polite church clapping, but head-shaking, hard-hand clapping with admiration and thanks. Pure success!
Thank you, Lord.
I slipped into my office to put my things down and join my dinner guests for the evening meal, and made a call to David to quickly share with him my success, in the moment. I was *bursting* inside.
