Pray for me.

In Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust, he refers to a call from a musician and friend, Michael Card:

After gospel song writer and recording artist Michael Card finished a concert in Wembley Stadium in London, the audience rose to their feet in sustained, thunderous applause. Their unharnessed enthusiasm demanded one curtain call after another. When the brouhaha finally ended,. Michael ran to his dressing room and called me long-distance here in New Orleans. "Please pray for me right now, Brennan," he begged. He knew that , like me, he could easily be seduced by the siren call of success, the unbounded adulation of his fans. "I don't want this stuff," he fairly shouted. "Ask Jesus to set me free."

To this, I can now relate to in some small way.

While I may not have been out performing in front of thousands of fans, I did have the good fortune to spend time talking to one of Lakewood's own musicians, Randy Allison. As we prepared for some Koinonia fun (he performing, me doing a dose of technical mumbo-jumbo), I got a rather ample portion of ego inflation. The particular cause of this has something to do with the degree to which this little blog seems to have gotten what I'm told is some positive reactions among the band. I'd go on and on with tales told out of school that might better illustrate why I might be excused to floating a bit higher these days, but I might have to start accepting all of Randy's encouragement as a gospel unto itself. Needless to say, it was all very good to hear.

Call it coincidence if you want. But all this comes after a particularly great praise and worship at this weekend's service. Not just because Carrie & Michael Hodge blessed the stage with one of my favorite Two Hearts songs: Never Forget. One particularly well-received moment was the inclusion of two of Israel Houghton's new tunes, Everywhere That I Go and We Have Overcome. Those two songs have an energy level unto themselves that just gets magnified when they are included in the same service. The whole musical side of the night was perhaps one of the best I've seen in the nearly two years I've got to benchmark it against. I can't wait to make it back for a repeat viewing.

Another coincidence - if we want to keep calling it that - was Joel's sermon. The message was on setting a good example, letting our lives be our ministry. To me, that's long been viewed as one of the most beautiful, yet difficult to fulfill messages Christ left with us. Obviously, at Lakewood, we accentuate the positive. And the message was replete with examples of how to let our own light shine even when the situation makes it challenging. Lending that positive attitude is just as important to be that positive attitude since we're never fully aware of who's watching.

Some time ago, God put before me a wonderful example of this. It happened that I was dining out (Luby's to be precise) and was a bit flustered from the hectic pace of the day. It wasn't that I was in any sour mood of any kind, but I was certainly focused a bit on just me, isolated from the world thanks to my MP3 player, and there's no telling what my body language was saying ('cuz Lord knows I wasn't paying much attention). The woman ahead of me on this slow night at the restaurant, however, had all the good cheer in the world to spare. And not in the weird, scary Hare Krishna way ... just as sincere and well intentioned good spirits as you could possibly imagine. She made sure to lend me a smile and a kind word for the day. She proceeded to do the same for everybody working behind the serving line, the cashiers, and no telling how many other people. I pray that she's still at it. It was all I could do that night to just stand in awe of this woman and take a few notes. Whenever the memory bank flares up, I still try to include her in a prayer that she continues that example and is surrounded by enough of God's favor to live her life in a way that builds her up even higher in that regard.

On my way out of the Sanctuary Saturday, I figured I'd lend a nice word to Carrie Hodge. To do this is no small feat. You literally have to brace yourself for the excitement that Carrie exudes. And I'm even more convinced that the word "handshake" is simply not even in her vocabulary. I'm convinced that I'm all hugged out for the week now. But in my simple effort to congratulate Carrie and verbally applaud her performance, her response to me was the same as it was to everyone else who did the same: "God is good." Would that we all find it so easy to deflect the praise and give God the glory. Fortunately, God continues to put good examples in front of us. Maybe it's His way of saying we should keep the notebook handy at all times.

So back to my story. As luck, coincidence, or whatever we're calling it now, all I managed to do on a Saturday was go to church, hear an incredible praise and worship service, receive a great sermon on letting our lives be our ministry, and then watched as Carrie and Randy gave great examples of that sermon - which makes me appreciate the Lakewood band even more.

I've written at some point in the past about how music had always been the way that helped me connect with God in the years before I had a church home. So perhaps it's a far cry from coincidence to suggest that this blog has gravitated a bit towards the musical. What's odd is that my initial thought was that maybe someone out there in the world might connect with God a little bit like I do and enjoy Lakewood on at least a few of the levels I do. The thought never occurred to me that it might also be the occasional word of encouragement back to the very band and choir that I'm trying to spread that light with. From the front of the stage to the back (and even to the sound crew), I just hope that I never fail to run out of those words of encouragement.

Though at some point, I should just drop the word "coincidence" from my vocabulary.