Tuesday, January 16, 2007

An Update On Oak


Many of you have asked about our son Oak who had skull surgery 6 weeks ago. In some previous posts, I chronicled the day by day progress from the hospital and the first week at home. Six weeks past surgery, Oak is doing great! He started crawling last week and now behaves as if he wants to crawl around the world. He’s everywhere and all of the sudden our house needs to be child proof. It’s not. Send help fast!
With the exception of a really cool scar and having to sleep in his car seat for five more weeks, I don’t think he even knows what happened. God has been so good to us and my mind is full of answered prayers for his recovery. From every indication the Mighty Oak is back to normal. We’ll have to see the doc every year until he’s seven to make sure things proceed properly but besides that, he’s good as new.
Thank God.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Dancing at Fellowship Bible

I go to church a lot. I work at church and I grew up in a family that was faithful to attend church. I have seen a bunch of interesting stuff happen at church. Some say church is boring. I say hang around long enough...somebody will flip out soon enough. One such thing happened on New Year’s Eve @ Fellowship Bible, the place where the Cartee’s attend. (www.fellowshipnashville.org)
Oak was to be dedicated that Sunday along with 5 or 6 other babies so we had a lot of people in town to see the event. The baby dedication was after the first song and went off without so much as a tear from all the babies. They were great and every one was dedicated. We sit down and the worship band proceeds into their songs. Suddenly during a song called Your Grace Is Enough, the girl sitting in front of me and beside my in-laws, heads quickly out of her seat. “Where’s she going in such a hurry?” I asked myself. Seconds later she reappeared on the stage and starts dancing to the song. She’s tearing it up! She’s busting a move and doing a really good job. I got nervous. I immediately began looking for people’s reaction. What’s the worship leader going to do? I knew it was not supposed to happen as a component in the production schedule. What were my parents going to think? Did I want them to think I went to a dancing church? I went to a dancing church for the first eighteen years of my life or maybe it could be better described as a spinnin’ and floppin’ church...people just going nuts during all the fast worship songs. The issue at hand, is that Fellowship is not a dancing church. They are not averse to it and even have a church sponsored school of dance. However, it’s usually performed in a controlled context, with a spotlight and someone saying “Que dancers!” into a head set back stage. This was anything but that. It was totally unrehearsed and off the page.
So there I was going through all these “what ifs” and "oh no’s” when the Spirit says... “Stop focusing so much on yourself and worship me during this awesome song. Look at her, that’s what she’s doing. What people say or think about her expression of worship is the last thing on her mind. She is bringing her very best to me and that’s all she cares about. Her worship does not come with a comfort filter attached. It is wholehearted and humble, like David’s, my favorite kind.” Soon enough, I realized what I was seeing. It was one of the coolest acts of worship ever. It was graceful, unpretentious, unrehearsed but well done, Honest, joyful and pure. Once I got over myself, I recognized the most profound thing of all...the great humility it took to offer that kind of expression. Selfless and generous, she danced for the Lord. Obeying scripture in so many beautiful ways. My prayer for this new year is that I will worry less about what people think and more about humbly expressing worship to my Lord.
Dance more, worry less
Love,
Carl