THE DONKEY WORSHIP LEADER

Have you ever had a conversation about familiar things with someone who approaches the subject from a completely different frame of reference than you do? It can be frustrating. Other times it can be enlightening!

It can be tricky for me to explain to people outside of my Christian sub-culture exactly what it is I do as a worship leader. Hard to balance the clinical description with the mystical because there’s practical and spiritual intertwined.

One experience I had trying to make the explanation, though, blew me away. I was meeting a newly-acquired relative for one of the first times and getting acquainted. He came from a very different frame of reference than the Canadian suburban Evangelical church I grew up in. His experience with religion came from growing up in South-America in a Catholic environment.

My wife and I tried to explain a little bit of what I do in leading worship at church and his paraphrased summary reply caught us seriously off guard with it’s depth. He said:

“So you’re kinduv like the donkey that carried Jesus on it’s back to the people.”

My wife and I nodded tentatively, not sure where this was going…

He continued, “But when a donkey get’s proud, it rears up and Jesus would’ve fallen off the back – So don’t get too proud!”

Wow. My wife and I stood there amazed as he walked away. How deep was that? Where did this come from out of the blue? Who knew? But what a great thought and fresh perspective. James 4:6 says that God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud. Isaiah 48:11 tells us God will not share His glory with anyone. To vie for personal attention in that position is to forfeit your usefulness and render yourself detrimental to the cause, possibly even harming your guest of honor.

Now its kinduv an inside joke with my wife and I. Often, when I’m about to go up on stage and lead worship somewhere, she’ll say to me “Don’t let Jesus fall off your back!” ~ Good reminder.