Worship Together Blog

Disappointment and Discouragement - Part 1

This isn't a super hot topic in the Church today and it's even less talked about in ministry circles. As a church leader, we are expected to "be the example" for the people. I've heard pastors preach, "Don't come in here with your downcast face. That's not the Christian life we want to present to non-believers!" So we put on the "shiny happy people" mask and do well at faking it.

But reality is that sometimes life just stinks. Things don't always go as we plan and our Christian life isn't always a constant spiraling up toward God. If fact, if you are a faithful follower of Jesus, YOU WILL experience times of discouragement. There is no example in the Bible of anyone who never suffered for Christ in some way. I think sometimes our unwillingness to embrace the suffering actually keeps us from precious encounters with the Father.

So it's time to get real, church.

I'm gonna blog over the next few days about some of the causes of discouragement and what our response should be.

Louie Giglio talk

On the recent How Great Is Our God tour, Louie Giglio delivered a message on the wonder of God where he showed incredible pictures of many different galaxies and demonstrated the size of various stars within those galaxies. Below is one of the pictures of the M51 Whirlpool galaxy. It's just amazing!

A video of Louie's talk is contained on the new Chris Tomlin "See the Morning" tour edition. I was at a block party on Halloween night and the guy hosting the party showed the video with a projector using his garage door as a screen. When the video started everyone was talking and having fun, but as the talk continued the group went dead silent as Louie transitioned from the grandeur of space to the wonder of the human body.

I'm not going to give away the end, but I'm telling you I was choking back tears when he showed a picture of the human body protein laminin. On the way home that night, my 11 year old son (who is normally a goofball) asked me if I'd get him a copy of the video!

Seriously people, if you are sharing your faith with someone or if you need to be reminded of how great our God is, then get a copy of this DVD.

-Peace