Recently I asked a dear brother, Wyeth Duncan, which book(s) has had the most formative impact on him when it comes to the gathered praise of God’s people. Like a lot of avid readers and thinkers, he had to sort through a lot of things he has read over the years. But one book came to the fore for him: Anne Ortlund’s Up with Worship: How to Quit Playing Church. I think Wyeth read the book in his late teens or early twenties and it’s had a lasting impact on him.
So I decided I’d pick up a copy and start to read. I was challenged from the opening page–literally the opening page. There’s no header to the page. No page number. It’s before the title page. It’s before all of the copyright information and the table of contents.
It’s a prayer. Here’s what it says:
Lord, these are the first words a casual reader’s eyes will light upon.
In this moment–grab him, God.
Spin him around, knock him off his feet, flatten him, pin him.
Hold him there for 160 pages, on his back.
Then there’s no place to look but up, Father. One hundred sixty pages: that may be the longest time he’s thought about worship, ever.
Uh-oh, he heard the word worship and he’s wiggling. Pin him good, Lord.
Pin him until he feels desperately impotent. You know how we are about worship, God–quick to clothe ourselves, quick to make motions, quick to say words…. Stuff your almighty fist in his mouth, O Most High. Hold your omnipotent knee on his chest.
He’s wonderfully quiet. Oh, God, he’s turning blue. You’ve seen it: you’re breathing your holy breath into him….
Now he’s ready to read.
Alleluia
Now that is how you start a book! Those words arrested me so much I had to stop and pray for my reading of this book and for that kind of experience with God! Those words made me sensible to the dullness of my heart, the tepidness of my praise and the vagueness that so often clouds my heart and muddies my communion with Christ.
What about you?
I couldn’t move forward without asking the Lord to pin me, spin me, knock me off my feet and breathe His Spirit upon me in fresh power! And He did!