Worship Wednesdays: Worshipping In The Silence (John Waller’s “While I’m Waiting”)

johnwaller

Last week we delved into worshipping Jesus when life doesn’t seem to make sense. We talked about worshipping in the everyday life, in the small things, and in the times when we are angry and do not understand. This week, I’m going to talk about an incident that occurred today, and how that spoke to me about worshipping God.

As I am a reviewer for this site, every so often I receive pre releases of albums. Today was one of those days; however this particular album was a stream only album. Now I didn’t particularly want to be connected to the internet all the time, and play the song from my internet bandwidth and download quota when I was to be reviewing the album, so I decided to save a program online that would allow me to record mp3’s. This was strictly for review purposes, and the other version of a reliable program that I had had finished its trial run. The program was ok, it wasn’t something that I desperately wanted to buy, however I thought that it was competent, and once it expired I thought ‘why not download the same version again?’ Big mistake! Little did I know what would eventuate in the next few minutes after.

Well the software did install, but once it did, the audio cut out. I mean literally. For everything. It says ‘there is no audio device installed’, and as much as I tried to fix the problem, nothing worked. So there it is. There is no audio on my computer. Watching youtube videos, listening to music, all gone for a time. No more reviewing music on my new computer, nor watching TV shows and movies. Well not this computer I’m typing on (which is heaps slower than my newer computer), but the newer one, which I am going to have to bring into Harvey Norman for repairs within a couple of days. While I’m not going to delve into the details of what is actually wrong with the new laptop, what I will say is that the software is now uninstalled. Though that didn’t reverse the effect of no audio. Regardless, while I was in a state of semi panic (yep, I am prone to those from time to time), and while I was wondering about what to do, the idea came to my head to just use the older laptop for a while. And that’s what I’m doing now.

But there was something else that God spoke to me about, and it was through the idea of worship. A song came into my head, and it is John Waller’s “While I’m Waiting”, that mid tempo worship ballad driven by keys, and taken from his 2009 album of the same name. One of my favourite songs from John, this song was relevant in my current predicament, as it seemed like God was saying that I could worship in the midst of the chaos. And it seemed like He was also saying that I can worship in the silence as well. For a time, there was no music blaring out of the laptop, and God was saying that I can worship through that. Objectively, that’s a valid statement, and it’s definitely true that we can worship anytime, anywhere, in any circumstance, because God is good. But I guess when you’re in the thick of anything, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s hard to believe that worshipping in your circumstance is ideal at all.

But that’s when I believe you ought to worship the most. When you’re in dire straights, and when you don’t have anything else left to hold onto. Sure you worship before then, but I believe that worship is the most effective, and our worship is probably the most raw, emotional, personal and meaningful, when it’s the last thing we’re got (besides God).

In my predicament (which in hindsight is nothing, as I will have my computer fixed in no time, maybe within a few days- and what’s the worse that can happen? Nothing, besides me not uploading reviews as swiftly as I want to, as well as me using an older laptop which is not as fast as my newer laptop…), worship I guess is pretty easy, compared to those who experience hardship and pain in countries in Africa and the Middle East. But I guess because we’ve grown up in the Western world, we’re accustomed to noise all around us, and when that noise stops (or audio from my laptop like today), we sometimes fall apart. Some of us show our expressions of that ‘falling apart’ just a bit more than others, but we all are affected when something so common is taken a way from us for a time.

And in those circumstances, how do we worship? Well let me share with you some poignant lyrics from John Waller’s song which I think would comfort you.

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait

Even as we wait, even as things get hard, John fervently encourages us to serve God cheerfully, to worship, and run our own race. Philippians 4:6-7 reminds us not to be anxious about anything but in everything, through prayer and petition, to present our requests to God, thus peace will guide our hearts. A brilliant song with a relevant message for today’s culture, particularly in the sense that we all need to exercise patience (which can be done through God taking us outside of our comfort zone, like he did with me today), I encourage you to listen to the track, and let me know about any time when God has allowed something to be taken away for a time so that you can refocus on Him.

What was it, if you want to share, and what did you come to realise from being absent from it for a time?

Has God spoken to you more in the noise or in the silence? Have you worshipped God when you are in the middle of the silence? If you had no access to music or TV or anything electronic for a few days, what would you do? Let us know in the comments!

3 thoughts on “Worship Wednesdays: Worshipping In The Silence (John Waller’s “While I’m Waiting”)”

  1. Great post guys! If I didn’t have a computer (I rarely, if ever watch TV) I would probably read my Bible and some good novels, but I do that all the time anyway, haha! I’m a BIG reader, (I like to call myself a bookfrog) and I don’t know if you know this, but I’m also a writer. I have a blog, but I have also written a few novels. I’m currently half way through a third, and hopefully next year I’ll aim for publication. Right now I’m lending one out to some beta readers, and the response has all been good so far. So yeah, I’d do a lot more of that!
    And you’re completely right when you say we can worship in the silence. I find the most glorious worship is when the music is turn off or down and it’s just you and God. No distractions.
    And that’s my favourite John Waller song, along with As for me and my house.
    God bless!

  2. If I had no access to music or TV or anything electronic for a few days, I would write, sing and listen to what God has to say to me in the silence because I am almost always busy. I love writing and I feel I get more choked everyday with so much distraction around.

    I can do without TV and all things electronic but if I had no access to music, I could still get to sing it. That’s the good part about it.

  3. Glad you like this blog, guys! It’s one that I kinda wrote out of frustration because my computer went haywire a bit… but I guess God knows what I needed, as this blog was kinda therapeutic for me, and made me calm down a bit!

    “While I’m Waiting” is probably one of my favourite songs from 2009!

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