Give up the Grammy

You GET TO Lead Worship

Author

Batsirai Chada
May 13, 2023

“One day I’m gonna win a Grammy!” I used to tell people about this ambition, this dream, this goal. Really it was a way of validating my existence, something to tell me that I was good, something that others would have to acknowledge.

I didn’t think of the Grammy in those terms then, but I did want that consensus approval that I was good at something. If I was going to sing, or be an artist, I might as well get an award to prove that I was a good one.

I know you don’t think like that - but I did. Perhaps do still every now and then.

Even when I HEARD God say - “Give up the Grammy, and here is Christian music!” (a story for another time)

Do you know what I did? Yes, I willingly laid down my dream of the Grammy… and picked up what God must have really wanted along for me… a Dove Award. Can you see the Father facepalm Himself… I can. 😂 

He led me out of that over time, and in His grace and perhaps humor - I have held a real Grammy Award in my hands (belonged to a friend) and I was even a presenting sponsor of a Dove Award! And I remember holding the Grammy Award and having this sense of “Is this what I so earnestly desired??? how weak are my desires!”

Matt Damon had a similar reaction - except the award was actually his. But read the story below and the takeaways.

In 1997, at the age of 27, Matt Damon won his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay ("Good Will Hunting").

After Damon won the Oscar, he went home, sat down on his sofa, & looked at the award.

As he looked at it, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a heartbreaking thought.

"Imagine chasing that, and not getting it, and getting it finally in your 80s or your 90s with all of life behind you and realizing what an unbelievable waste of your life...It can't fill you up. If that's a hole that you have, that won't fill it."

"My heart broke," Damon said. "I imagined another one of me [not getting that award until I was] an old man, and going like, 'oh my god. where did my life go? What have I done?' And then it's over."

Takeaway 1:

Many successful, rich, famous, etc. people talk about chasing success, money, fame, etc., getting it, and realizing that it didn't feel like they thought it would. That it didn't, as Damon said, fill the hole they had.

One of my favorite analogies for this pattern comes from Sam Hinkie. Hinkie was asked about what he's learned from reading Robert Caro's books—about some very successful, rich, famous, etc. people. "I think of it like the Pacific Salmon," Hinkie said.

"They spend their whole life making this journey upstream to spawn in this one spot. And as soon as they do, they die. That's largely what Caro shows you."

Takeaway 2:

Before he was a big-time comedian, Hasan Minhaj was asked if he thought he was going to become a big-time comedian. “I don’t like that question,” he said. “I fundamentally don’t like that question.”

Because that question implies that he is only doing comedy as a means to some end (success, money, fame, etc.).

“No, no, no,” he said, “The set I get to do tonight at 7:20 PM is the win. I get to do comedy—I won. It being predicated on doing X or being bigger than Y—no, no, no. To me, it’s always just been about the work."

"The work is the win," as Ryan Holiday once told me. - - - "It's such a gift to be able to [do] something and to love it for the sake of it...I see people with talent, with all those things. But the one thing they don't have is just that love for doing it for the sake of it...So if there's anything, just find joy in what you do for the sake of it." — Rodney Mullen

Billy Oppenheimer

We get to do this!

Is that how we think of our Sunday sets? I am often thinking about trying to be a big worship leader, impactful songwriter, sold-out touring artist, etc… yep I still do from time to time.

We are living the life we once dreamed of…

Unknown

I lead worship in a large air-conditioned auditorium in a growing church, with a great team and a senior pastor with a heart for worship. We have the worship equipment, the talent/skill, and the resources that 98% of the global church doesn’t have - and yet I still find myself looking into the future at what ‘more’ might look like.

But the fact is - I GET TO DO THIS. I am living the life I once dreamed of. I have the frequent opportunity to do what I once prayed for.

Leading this day, these people before me, with this team and these songs - IS THE WIN. Knowing I am doing what God has called, equipped and invited me to do and to have that sense of satisfaction when purpose and opportunity align - that is the WIN. I get to do this. And I won’t always be able to say that - so while I can - I will encourage my heart to remember that I get to do this.

Remember, You GET TO LEAD WORSHIP.

I get to lead worship - I won.

Batsirai

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