Standing in front of 96,828 fans, your ears tend to deceive you. Yet standing there on the field of Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia, it was hard to ignore what you heard. With trombone in hand I fought alongside the rest of the Redcoat band our biggest temptation: to play with the echo.
(Ok... second biggest temptation. The first was to trip the Georgia Tech players as they ran past us into the locker room...)
With 400 plus members, our band produced a massive sound - a sound that bounced around the stadium for what seemed like minutes. If we weren't careful, it was very easy to begin playing along with the echo that came bouncing off the red-clad fans. The result was musical chaos. The key to staying together was for each member to keep their eyes on the director, the drum major standing on a platform on the sideline.
We've probably all experienced some sort of echo or another. Whether we're standing at the edge of a canyon or in the midst of downtown skyscrapers, echoes are a faint reflection of the original sound. While echoes can be fun sometimes, there are plenty that should be avoided. One of the most critical occurs in our worship services. Songwriter and worship leader Paul Baloche developed this idea recently: the songs we sing to God (and perhaps even the way we sing them) can be categorized into two groups. They are either a true expression of praise (an original source), or an impartial repetition of something previously heard (an echo).
Baloche focuses this idea on the songs themselves (how some songs seem to truly be a fresh voice of praise while others seem to only repeat previously heard ideas), I believe that this concept applies to each person that attends a worship service. Think about this: two people, standing side by side, can sing the same song at the same time to the same God, yet one is an authentic voice of worship and adoration and the other an unemotional and uninvolved echo. The difference lies not with their voices or with the lyrics, but with the focus of the heart. The first person has their eyes on the Director - on His holiness, on His grace, on His love. The second is lost in thoughts of lunch, or someone's wardrobe, or perhaps they're too weighed down by all the baggage they dragged in to realize that freedom is only a prayer away.
An interesting thing occurs in worship services each week that most people fail to recognize: No one leaves unchanged. Those that join together in truly praising their Savior are drawn closer to Him and encouraged to live a life that honors Him. Those that only sing an echo of praise usually leave more hardened and cold; their lives descending more and more into chaos. To be sure, nothing is impossible with God, and His Spirit can melt even the hardest heart at any time (just ask Paul!). But any encounter with God that does not lead to repentance and submission (at least in part) leads instead to hardening and bitterness.
I would like to encourage us all to keep our eyes fixed on the Director, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of praise, and He is truly worth worshiping. May the words we sing each week be more than an echo - may they be an authentic voice that exalts our King.
