As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.”
-Psalm 87:7, NIV
And thus, I'm reminded of how God is in charge. It "just so happens" that I spent last Friday night and most of Saturday as a leader on our annual fall retreat for the youth/student ministry. While on that retreat, we sang "All My Fountains" by Chris Tomlin on multiple occasions.
This song holds a very special place in my heart, as I was in attendance at Passion 2011 when Chris first introduced this song. As I belted the lyrics mindlessly along with 26,000 of my closest college-aged friends, I was in the moment. I just sang along and read the words off the screen.
Then, John Piper got up as the speaker for that session. He proceeded to ask all of us in the crowd if we had thought about what it would mean for all of our fountains to be in God. He asked if we had really meant those words, if we had really meant a devotion and love for the Lord our God that was so overflowing that it pours out of us like a fountain, or if we had merely read the words and sang them back, like some sort of parrot that repeats things with no cognitive element or reflection upon the meaning and implications of such a song.
I was floored. I had never thought about it. I had been trained to sing the words off of the screen, and yet I had never really thought about them as I sang them.
From that moment on, my approach in corporate worship has changed quite a bit. I have started to focus more and more on the meaning of the songs I sing, and I am getting more and more focused on worshipping God in those scenarios as I grow in my walk with Him.
God isn't looking for mindless lyric-reading; He wants you and all of your praise. He wants you to worship and sing, making a joyful noise unto Him. He wants all of your fountains to be in Him, and to overflow from your heart into the lives of others.
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