Do I Really Want This?… Reflecting on the 11^th Annual International Worship Institute, I keep coming back to a theme that seemed woven through many of the sessions. No one expressed it more clearly, perhaps, than Bob Sorge. "The trial produces the praise and the glory."

Bob opened his message with Psalm 84:5-7. He assured those of us "in whose hearts are the highways to Zion" that we will go through times of weeping before we go from strength to strength. Bob asked "who can stand when He appears?… He will purify the sons of Levi…like gold and silver…so that they may present…offerings in righteousness." (Malachi 3:2-3)

This suffering, Bob told us, is not to beat us down; it drives us further into Christ! Thursday evening, Bob inspired us to pursue intimacy with Jesus as a balance to our servant-hood. The ambitious nature of musicians and singers is a natural predator of this intimacy. Who do you fear? That's who you'll seek to please.

I began to get the message. I was among fellow sufferers, and I knew it by looking at the faces around me. Yet our weeping faces were full of hope, because we knew that - as Bob had shared - "every branch that bears fruit, He prunes." (John 15:2)

Do I really want this? If you were there, you're shouting "Yes!" I've been serving as a worship leader for ten years now, but the 11^th Annual IWI was my first. I hope it impacted your life a tenth as much as it touched mine.