The Stage - "a story about my journey"

I can feel that this one is going to probably speak to me more than anyone else but I'm sure someone out there needs it too... so here it goes.

Let me start by introducing the inspiration: Ladies and gentleman - please meet 'THE STAGE'.

This is not a familiar stage to anyone in my circle of friends and I haven't even been on this particular stage myself but while I was waiting for my class to start the other day, I just sat looking at this stage and had a few thoughts I thought I'd put down.

I've spent approximately 25 years of my life on a stage. Various stages actually. When I stood on a chair (on stage) to sing a Christmas carol at the age of 4, I never dreamed that I would grow up and spend a lifetime on stage and even lead worship on a huge stage in front of the Union Buildings with and orchestra and a crowd of thousands. Over the years, the stage has become a familiar place to me. For some reason I just don't manage to escape it.

I was blessed to learn quite early that most of the stages I would find myself on would not be just "A Stage" but rather "An Alter". A place of sacrifice where I would present God with the very gifts that He has given me. His Gifts - Not mine.

I have done my best to always walk worthy of the privilege of being on a stage. I have had to learn the hard lessons of not letting the stage define me. And although the stage can give a totally different impression of who I really am, I have had to learn how to find the balance to ensure that I am the same person both on and off stage.

It has been an incredible journey and before I knew it, I was like a fish in water on a stage. It soon became one of the few public places where I felt safest, most effective and full of purpose. It was a place where an amazing exchange would take place between God & I. As I would give all of me in service to Him, He would fill me, refresh me, comfort me, use me and empower me. I even "spotted" my wife from a stage.

And then one day

... I no longer had access to a particular stage which I had become so accustomed to.
The lights had died down, the music had faded and the crowd had disappeared and I felt a bit lost and out place. I felt like I was in an empty auditorium...

I felt like an actor who had just exited a stage in a play or show after his final performance. The difference though, was that I wasn't leaving with a standing ovation, or exhilarating exit music. No applause or pyrotechnics. No credits rolling and no time to pose for pictures with an Emmy award.
It was just OVER. My time had come to an end.

And so in what felt like a split second, my familiar place became a place I resented most. Hurt, pain and a whirlwind of emotions justified my desire to "NEVER want to get back up on a stage ever again". Not that specific stage, or any other. Every Stage in my life felt the effects. In my mind, a stage would never see me again.
I disappeared, I walked away and I hid. But I hid in an amazing place. A secret place. A place where I knew God was too. It was the other place He and I would always encounter each other besides "on stage". And in this place, some amazing things happened.

A look at some old phones reminded me of something mind blowing.

I remembered THE CALL. A higher calling. A call to worship, a call to reach others for Jesus, a call to live a life sold out for Him.

It's been approximately 9 months since the last time I was on an actual stage. But during that time I have still been on THE STAGE OF LIFE. I have still had eyes on me, I have still had opportunities to be effective, I have still had to live worthy of being CALLED and CHOSEN by God. I had to be the same Darren - But without the stage. Nine months is approximately the same amount of time a baby spends developing in the womb - so perhaps I have just been on "maternity leave", getting ready to give birth to something NEW.

I am ready to be obedient. I am ready to pay the price and I am ready for the role MY DIRECTOR has cast me in.

And I am determined to be my best - on a field, on a road, in a room or on a stage.

ALL I WANT TO DO IS WORSHIP YOU...

Be encouraged
D