My 8 year old gets it

Tonight was the W.O.R.S.H.I.P. experience. NEW!! EXCITING!!!

"Here I am to worship; Here I am to bow down" "...all I am never cease to worship You" "I sing for joy" "I am Yours" "I just want to say Thank You Lord" "I'll praise the Lord"

I, I, I, I, I......

You know, one song wasn't so bad. The "New Doxology." At least there was reference to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In church I puzzled over why it was called the "NEW" Doxology.... What's wrong with the old? It just dawned on me that in the OLD Doxology we sing "Praise God from whom all blessing flow/ Praise Him all creatures here below/ Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts/ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." That's it. Finis. In the NEW Doxology we find additions, many of them, and most of them perfectly fine, until we get to "... I'll praise the One..."

See, in this contemporary stuff, there has to be "me." "I" do this, "I" do that, "I am" and so on.

Anyway, back to my 8-year-old. I asked him what church was about tonight. He said "that we should thank God for everything."
"Like what?"
"The world and everything we have and all that."
"What else?
"Hmmm," at this point he's really thinking hard. "Jesus."
"What did you hear about Jesus?"
"Hmmm......"
At this point I showed him the picture of the Crucifixion window at church, and he jumped on it.
"We never heard to thank God for sending Jesus to die for us! Or for His resurrection!"

He got it.

There might be subtle references to Jesus' death and resurrection in this contemporary stuff, but they are so lost in the "I" that they are very easy to miss.

I'll leave alone the Theology of Glory stuff in it for tonight. However, compare this with the "I" stuff:

He brings me to the portal/That leads to bliss untold/ Whereon this rime immortal/
Is found in script of gold:/ "Who there My cross hath shared/Finds here a crown prepared;/
Who there with Me has died/Shall here be glorified." (Paul Gerhardt)

'Nuff said.