I have been reading a book this month called “Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness” and it had this quote I really resonated with from Eugene Peterson: ”[Worship is] a meeting at the center so that our lives are centered in God and not lived eccentrically. We worship so that we live in response to and from the center, the living God. Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren... if there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustained purpose.” The headspace of someone worshiping, in my experience, is this centering. Clarity in vision, singular in purpose (the kingdom of God). When I am playing music, leading, I do not allow myself the opportunity to have the above experience mainly because of the self-consciousness of playing well. But as I have said, I feel like the greatest act of service - aka Worship - in that moment is to be a good leader. We make the path, create the space, that allows people to get out of the “life of spasms and jerks”. This means playing with excellence so that mistakes don’t distract - we are trying to take them out of spasms and jerks not add to it, haha! This means finding that balance between making the music unique enough that it piques people's focus on the content while digestible enough that it doesn’t overpower the attention of the congregation. Hope this all makes sense. PK