How very apropos today’s reading is for what is going on around here! How many times did we read “Praise the Lord!”, “Bless the Lord!”, “Praise the name of the Lord!” today? And expressions of devotion to God and of how good He is.

As I record this episode on Sunday evening, I am still in a state of elation for the way God blessed my church this morning. (And by the way, this leads into why I missed a couple episodes last week.) After nearly two years of construction on remodeling our sanctuary, we had the grand opening this morning.

Rest assured, the remodeling was not just for the sake of aesthetics. There were some serious structural issues that caused this project, so it wasn’t done for our own enjoyment or sense of style. But since it had to be done, the church decided that when the changes were made, it should be beautiful as well.

So as the building was nearing completion last week, as the technology guy at church, it was my responsibility to install the sound system, the video system, the computer, and configure the worship software. All the wiring had to be installed, which required that I spend multiple hours in the crawlspace under the stage.

And when I say crawlspace, that is being generous. There was not enough room for me to get up on my hands and knees to crawl. You’ve probably seen movies or tv shows where Marines or soldiers are going through obstacle courses and they have to crawl with their bellies on the ground under barbed wire? That’s pretty much the way I was under the stage. Except instead of fellow soldiers, I had the company of spiders and who-knows-what other companions.

All told, I probably put in 60 to 70 hours last week bringing all the systems together, and it wasn’t fully complete until literally minutes before the service started this morning. The little sleep I did get last week was filled with dreams of trying to figure out our new digital sound board. I’m really thankful that the two guys I have helping in the sound department were able to figure out some of the issues that had me stumped. Wes and Chris were really wonderful help in that department.

I could go on and on with stories about this past week, but suffice it to say that I just really poured all of myself into the project, because my heart’s desire is to serve my Lord in such a way that when the worship service is underway, people are drawn to Him, and not distracted by technical hiccups or faux pas.

How did it go? Almost completely flawlessly. The only small problem was when our pastor switched on his wireless mic, it decided to give us nothing but static. It worked fine in rehearsal. But the pastor just picked up another hand held mic after about two seconds and continued right on into the message.

My thanks go to the guys that helped make it all come together, and I praise the God who strengthens and enables us when we are weak. He made it all happen, and to Him be the glory and honor and praise forever!

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow as we begin the book of Judges. You’ll be here, right?