While I appreciate the sentiment of choruses that call us to "forget about ourselves and magnify the Lord and worship him," I also know that none of us worships in a vacuum.

When Isaiah saw the Lord, high and lifted up, he didn't forget himself, he was immediately self-aware, overwhelmed with his own unworthiness.

Our circumstances become part of our worship; our mind, emotion, and will are gifts we bring to the Almighty.

Two weeks ago was my turn to experience what many of you experience regularly, I'm sure.

Our congregation's regular worship leader was out of town, so I was filling in. As we were singing a medley of "All to Jesus I Surrender" and "There Is a Redeemer," I was thinking about the words, but I was also scanning the faces in front of me, each a unique story.

Those stories included:

* the joy of a just completed adoption

* the oppression of mental illness

* the eager anticipation of childbirth

* the anger of divorce proceedings

* the satisfaction of a college athletic scholarship

* the ...