Camp Buckner.

These past three days have been a crazy journey, but it felt like a week long. I volunteered at a youth retreat in Austin. More specifically, I was invited to play keyboard in a praise band called "Awakening". I didn't have any other obligations except for worshiping at the evening sessions. It was a great experience to lead worship and relax.

But I'll be honest, I learned just as much, if not more, at this retreat. Even though I wasn't a youth kid (I got mistaken as one many times), I was challenged to re-evaluate myself and realign my relationship with Christ. 

Leading worship is one of the most difficult things to do. Yes, you have to be talented at playing instruments and whatnot. But that wasn't the difficult thing. Leading worship is a spiritual battle within yourself. There are so many things that can distract you from worshiping God.

Thoughts creep into my head: Does the audience seem into it? Am I playing the right chords? Does this sound cool? Am I singing in tune?

While you're thinking all these things, you forget about the words that are coming out of your mouth. Sure, you're singing the words. But that's it. In my case, I focused on "leading" worship. I didn't focus on worshiping God myself. Ironically, you fail at leading worship by focusing on leading worship. You lead worship by worshiping.

The first night, our entire "Awakening" team came to realize this. We failed at worshiping because we were so concerned about leading. Honestly, God doesn't need us to have people worship Him. He chose to use us.

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” - John 4:24

So I came to understand how important and challenging it is to lead worship. The spiritual battle within yourself is not a joke. It's Satan's best chance to ruin God's people from giving Him the glory He deserves.
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There's one more thing I learned. It's a simple truth, but it became dull to me. Sometimes you need a reminder (for me, it's all the time). Religion tells you to DO. Christ tells you it's already DONE. We've been given everything. All you have to do is believe in Christ.

Like Judah Smith mentioned, "Your position in Christ dictates how you walk your life. But your walk in life will NEVER dictate/change your position in Christ."