Worship in German

I suppose today is a landmark day because I led my first worship set in German!  I guess this also marks the first time I've actually led worship in a foreign language . . . even though I know Spanish worship songs, I've never done a worship set in Spanish.  So today was kind of cool!  Thankfully my pronunciation was okay and I didn't majorly muff any of the lines.  But it was very low-pressure because there were less than ten people in the service today.  I actually just did the songs at the end.  Joey played the first set at the beginning.

I have to say, it's been really helpful to start learning songs in German.  Most of the ones they sing at City Light are English songs that have been translated into German, so since I know their English translations it's been helping me learn a lot of new words.  Joey let me take home one of the word booklets so I could practice.  (I've found that it's definitely easier to sing in German than in French--I had a tough time when I went to Vespers in Notre Dame and to Calvary Chapel Paris!  French pronunciation is so tricky anyway, and when you put it in songs it gets even more confusing!)  The two German songs I chose were ones that they have sung enough times that I knew them pretty well, and I had the words in front of me to help me too.  They were "Der Herrliche" and "Du bist so treu zu uns," which are both Chris Tomlin songs . . . original titles "The Famous One" and "Great is Your Faithfulness."

The Bible study was super good.  Joey is finishing up talking about the vision and mission for City Light, and this week the topic was bringing glory to God.

Some thoughts from the study:

• Mankind was made to glorify God.  Only God is deserving of glory and honor, and we need to give it to Him instead of taking it for ourselves.  Any time people try to take the credit and the glory, they can't handle it and they end up falling.
• The reason we should be going to church, Bible study, or any gathering of believers is to meet God and experience His presence.  We ought to go to a church meeting with the expectation of meeting God, the same as we go to the supermarket expecting to buy food or go to the theater expecting to see a movie.  God has promised that He will show up when believers are gathered in His name, and we should be eager to receive His promised presence each time we go to church or study.  Other gatherings, like World-Cup-watching parties and fitness club meetings, don't have the promise of God's presence.  But gatherings of believers do, and that's a special privilege we should look forward to!

Been doing homework this afternoon and evening.  Also made another one of my frozen veggie burgers for dinner.  Absolutely amazing.  They seriously get better with age . . . sounds scary, I know, but the flavors blend so much better when they've been frozen for a while.  Put avocado on it too--that absolutely made it.

A couple of good "deep" discussions today.  First was with Marni this afternoon when she dropped by for a bit.  We were talking about psychological disorders, self-perception, and how faith fits into all of it.  Kind of just knocking ideas around.  Second was with Indra . . . we were talking about governments, political history, surveillance, and how the whole world changed after 9/11.  That conversation started after I brought up something interesting Marni had told me earlier.  Apparently Nir, the international student coordinator for the art department at HAW (who is Israeli but also a German citizen) had been talking to the international art workshop class about the World Cup.  He said that up until Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006, citizens never displayed the German flag.  I remembered Indra mentioning that, but what Nir was saying was that the 2006 World Cup was actually a turning point in the German national identity.  It finally gave them a reason to display their flag and be proud of it.  So all these red-yellow-and-black flags I have been seeing absolutely everywhere over the past few weeks are still a new thing here.  Before 2006, it apparently was just something they didn't do.  I have been told by a lot of people that Germany still is struggling to shake loose from the whole Nazi thing.  They have had difficulties with bad connotations, stereotypes, not repeating the past, not being overly nationalistic, finding a new national identity for themselves apart from Nazism, etc.  The German republic is actually still a very young nation.  It's interesting to me and also really sad how Germany is still so bound by a bad political regime in their past.  I think that, from what I have observed, it is a really neat country now, and I like its people a lot.  And I think it is really great that they have finally reached a point where they've regained some sense of national pride in their flag.  Whoever would have thought soccer could break down barriers like that?  I guess being American, I'm so used to seeing flags displayed everywhere and to having a flag that has been essentially the same for centuries and that has always stood for freedom and opportunity.  So even the thought of not being able to take pride in your flag is kind of a crazy concept to me.

Wow, I don't normally get this serious or deep.  All right, that's enough philosophizing for one day.  Good grief, speaking of surveillance, I'll probably post this and then get new ads popping up and telling me to buy German and American flags, based on the keywords on the cookies on my computer . . .

On a lighter note, Indra and I also talked about our favorite Disney movies.