Why Praise God?

I may be stepping on some toes here, but recently I have been asking myself why I'm in praise band. This is not to say that I'm thinking of quitting the band, that I don't like singing or praise: my love for all three will never change. It is not to say that I don't think I can sing, but merely that I see myself as small, and others larger, more important, and far more talented than myself. Whenever I join the others on stage, I join people with multiple talents. I'm up there holding a microphone. On a music stage, that's all I can do, and even that imperfectly. But it doesn't matter if I have one talent to offer God- or two or three. It only matters that I'm offering it (Matthew 25:14-30).

There are others in the congregation that can sing too, some better than I can. And I know that God doesn't need me to praise Him at all; even if no man or woman had a praise song on his or her lips (or guitar, drums, keyboard and etc.), all of creation would cry out in praise (Luke 19:39-40). I praise God because because I believe myself to be particularly talented, but because I'm in love. Praising God is the outflow of deep, obsessive love, and this outflow is part of His plan to change the world.

A great deal of the music, if not most, is devoted to love. You can't escape it; on the radio, it's just about everywhere you turn the dial. It's a modern adage that most contemporary Christian songs wouldn't change much if we exchanged "Jesus" for "baby." I don't think that's because Christian music is watered down these days, but because love is what we as humans instinctively seek.

The search for love is the search for intimacy with something greater than ourselves. The man or woman who is not a Christian innately knows that he or she needs love, but may only know to seek it in human intimacy. If there is anyone who doesn't want love, I don't know him or her, and I don't know of them. It who we love that we love that concerns us: will we choose love of self, or to love God?

Praising God is a way to show the world that we love Him. When I love someone, I can't help but to talk about him, sometimes past the point of the hearer's tolerance. Loving God is no different except it's better. The hearer wonders what's so great about Him that I might choose Him above others. What is it about Jesus that He's always on my mind? It's always Jesus this, or God that. He's so dreamy, and He's so awesome. Blah, blah, blah. Can't I talk about anything else?

Not really. There are times when I'm focused on myself, but when my focus is on the One I love, I can't talk about anything else. My love isn't perfect, but it's real, it's obsessive, and it can't help but to talk about its object. And even when I'm silent, He's always on my mind. Those thoughts leak out in verses posted on my desk and on my fridge. I want to always do things that make Him smile, and I love what He says to me in His word. I praise Him because He really is that great. I praise Him because I can't stop. It's my hope that my enthusiastic love for God will cause others to want the same thing (Song of Solomon 5:9-6:1).

I praise God with words, with my voice, with the admittedly off-rhythm clapping of my hands (offstage), pouring my thoughts into music and prayer, and the tapping of my feet: mind, will and strength (Psalm 150). Although I don't always get this right, I praise Him with abandon, no matter what the person next to me at church is doing (2 Samuel 6:1-23).

The only difference between praise band and the rest of my life is that onstage, I'm holding a mic. I can't think of a better use for it.