I am a worship leader and love very much the work God has called me to do. Every week I stand with brass players on my left, rhythm players on my right, singers behind me, a congregation before me and as the call to worship sounds, together we exalt God. Actually, I have the "best seat" in the house; I'm surrounded by glorious praise. And sometimes in the middle of all that's happening, I actually have an authentic worship experience - the kind I pray the congregation is having.

I know that the Lord is present, as He promised, but a personal, spiritual worship experience during a worship service is, for this worship leader, not always the case. Truthfully, some of my greatest worship experiences have not been in the corporate worship service. You see, I live close to the mountains and I love day hikes with my Bible. Invariably, these times of solitude and quiet are a blessing. There are no time limits, no song selection evaluations and no one complaining about the drums being too loud. It's just me and God. While I consider myself an extrovert, more and more I'm realizing my need for solitude with God. Sometimes I take my guitar to the mountains and as I read scripture and pray, a song is born.

A few years ago some friends and I were mountain climbing in northern California. This was a little more than my normal day hikes, but I brought along my Bible and my back-packing guitar and the adventure began. Three days into this fifty mile hike we arrived at my favorite lake. After setting up camp, a friend and I headed up a little higher for a real mountain top experience. Along the way, we became separated and found ourselves on separate peaks of the same mountain. In my attempt to reunite with him, I began descending a small 25 foot cliff, making my way to where he was. In the process, I lost my footing and wound up hanging by my hands over the edge of the cliff!

As I hung in the perilous predicament, the Psalm I had read that very morning flashed through my mind and echoed in my spirit: To You, O Lord, will I lift up my soul; in You I trust, O my God. I actually began laughing, realizing that my last experience on earth was to be a call to worship! God's word took melody in my heart and in time I was able to climb slowly back on top of the ridge, find my way back to camp, retrieve my guitar and finish a song of praise that was born of real life experience. This was God's call to worship for me and He was reminding me that worship is a way of life and can happen at any moment. Show me Your ways, O Lord, I thought. Teach me Your paths. I am a worship leader, but I think I enjoy being a worship follower even better.