Easter Prayer Experience: Day 1
A MESSAGE OF LOVE
- Megan Reddix
Has a particular song ever grabbed ahold of you, and you feel as if you’re transported somewhere completely different than where you actually are? How about a whole album or playlist? You spend hours with your eyes closed hearing nothing but the music; how the chords seem to effortlessly change, how the lyrics speak to a place so deep in your soul that you never knew it existed.
You don’t care if anyone else is around,
What you look like,
How you sound when your start singing along,
Or if you’re being too loud.
All that matters in that moment is the music.
I feel that way a lot. Sometimes it’s the first time I’ve heard a song or maybe I’ve listened to it a thousand times over. I lose myself, and at times it’s hard to reign myself back in. I become so overwhelmed with emotion that my heart aches to sing louder, and I have this uncontrollable urge to throw my hands in the air. You’ve probably watched me do this a time or two.
Every time I worship I get caught up in the meaning of each song. There is so much passion, love, and fellowship within the verses. There is an incredible beauty and fluidity in the instrumentals. I am reminded every time I hear a worship song that God is so good! How could anything sound so perfect and stir my heart so much if it wasn’t created by Him?
Here is a song that encourages me and gives me the comfort of God’s love and grace.
I was eight years old the first time I stood on a stage to sing in front of a crowd…
We were in New Hampshire, visiting the beach as we had done so many times before, but this time I felt drawn to “the Shell.” The Shell was a stage right on the boardwalk that we had sat at watching people perform for years. I never had a desire to actually get on the stage until that day. For the first time in my life, a song actually drew me in so deeply that I wanted to share it with as many people as I could. At eight years old, Shania Twain’s “From this Moment On” told me that there was love in this world beyond all I could imagine. From a little girl’s heart who ached for love, I finally had faith that it was out there. The moment came and went, and all I remember was a trophy half my size being placed in my hands as the other contestants of the talent show and the hundreds of people in the crowd smiled at me and cheered.
I had participated in talent shows, competitions, and musicals every year since standing on the Shell stage. I sang what my vocal coaches told me would fit my voice. Occasionally that passion to share the message of a particular song would come back and I would melt into the music, forgetting that a crowd even existed, but most of the time I walked up to the mic with my knees shaking. It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I consistently stood on stage without fear.
In the terrifying moment that I was asked to share my “talent,” I belted out “Summertime” from Porgy & Bess while my then-boyfriend-now-husband, Zach, faced a wall. I opened my eyes to see his mom standing in the doorway and Zach slowly turning around with his mouth open;
“I play guitar for teen worship team on Wednesday nights. You should try out.”
I had been a believer for a couple of years and had just started going to church regularly with his family, but Zach’s suggestion pulled at my heart. I didn’t know any worship songs well, but I was willing to learn. It wasn’t long until I started singing with the teen, then the adult, worship team at our church. Each song I learned, every time I sang, I got lost in the best way possible. I got lost in God’s message of love, and I knew it was something I needed to share.
It has been 11 years since I started worshipping, like REALLY worshipping, on stage With the Fellowship Team. I almost always forget the words but they somehow come out right. I sing each song with every ounce of my body, putting everything I have behind the words because they’re something I truly believe in. I’ve been told I can sing, and I don’t really know much about that, but I can tell you that I worship.
Whatever anyone else sees and hears me do when I’m up there with the Praise Team, it’s all God. I’m not afraid to belt out the wrong lyric or come in at the wrong time. I’m not concerned that I’ll hit a sour note.
My only goal when I walk onto that stage is to convey a message of love beyond anything we can comprehend!
Now, I won’t say that singing or worshipping is necessarily my spiritual gift. It’s something I feel drawn to do, just as I feel drawn to connect with others and share the powerful message of God’s grace through teaching yoga, photography, and writing. I know I’m not the best at communicating, I’m not the most talented musician, and I have an extremely difficult time finding comfort in social situations. However, God has given me the unlikely gift of supporting others through some of their most difficult moments. That’s where we can lean on God’s promises and put our full trust in Him.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.”
He has given me a passion to mother and a talent to share (in a variety of ways). Somewhere in the intersection of my deepest desires and the places I am the most uncomfortable, is the spiritual gift that God has trusted me with.
What gift has God given you to use?
