For My IWI Friends

Not sure how I stumbled on this guy's blog, but I thought this was interesting, especially after hearing Bob Sorge---
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He gives and takes away,
My heart will choose to say,
Lord blessed be Your name.
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For those of you that don't know, I have the amazing privilege of leading worship for the Healing Place Church campus in St. Francisville, LA (St. Franny as I like to call it). Anyway, this weekend I had the opportunity to experience the truth of those lyrics right smack in the middle of worship.
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We started off great and were introducing an older song that was new to the congregation, "You Are Good" by Israel Houghton. All was well and we smoothly transitioned into "Blessed Be Your Name" via "Stogie," Steven Stogner on electric.
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As we began the song, I had the urge to clear my throat and as I did, something happened. I'm not quite certain what it was, but what I am certain of is the result. Suddenly, I could barely get the words out. We made it to the instrumental bridge and it wasn't too obvious to anyone but Tabitha, she leads worship with me, and me that something was wrong.
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Then came the lyrics "You give and take away, you give and take away . . ." and He just completely took away. I had nothing. It was all I could do to finish the bridge, screech out the chorus twice more and end the song. I turned to the band and cut the 3rd song that was planned and we went straight to the last song "Revelation Song" which Tab was leading.
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Everything went fairly smooth and life went on. I had my voice back by that evening in time to lead worship for our Refuge service . So, He gave back too!
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At the time I felt my voice fading out, my first reaction was pretty much fear and embarrassment. As a singer, you are always a little freaked out when your voice goes out. Though it always does, the idea that it may never come back is completely real at least for a moment. That is one of the worst scenarios I can imagine in my selfish, small world.
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The irony though, was in the timing of the complete vocal loss. "You give and take away." At that moment, my first thought was to tap out and cut the song short and move on. But as I screeched out the lyric as best I could, the reality of what I was singing became even more important.
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Singing and singing fairly well is one of the most valued things in my life. At that moment, God dropped the reminder in my heart that he was the giver of the gift and that that was exactly all my ability to sing was, a gift from Him. If He chose to, He could take away my voice in an instant.
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Following that was the question, "Would you worship me still?" It didn't take me long to answer, the next lyric was all I needed to say, "My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name." As we repeated the bridge a few times, it became stronger in my heart and so I sang out with all I had.
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Though the vocals were shot, the heart was still able to express everything that was necessary: Blessed be the name of the Lord!
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I challenge you with this as God challenged me this weekend: If everything you have was taken away from you, where does your heart stand with God?
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Would you blame Him or bless Him? Ask yourself, in your heart, is God worth it even if you feel, sound or even look foolish to all around you?
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If you struggle with that thought, take a gander into the life of old Job. "After Job heard all of those reports, he got up and tore his robe. He shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshiped the Lord. He said,'I was born naked.And I'll leave here naked. You have given, and you have taken away. May your name be praised.' In spite of everything, Job didn't sin by blaming God for doing anything wrong."
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You can read the post for yourself at: http://michaelgriffis.blogspot.com/2007/02/he-gives-and-takes-away.html