Bagpipes take me to another place in my mind. When I play, I am so carried away by the sweet sound that I quickly lose touch with the outside world and every thought racing through my brain.
When I got home from the World Race, immediately everyone wanted to know what was next. Honestly, for the first month home, I had no idea…then in September, I moved down here to Georgia to be a part of CGA, a discipleship program.
“That sounds awesome”, they said.
And then when I started explaining (or attempting to explain) the different tracks and that I was doing Worship Track, I would either get unenthusiastic blank stares, excited friends saying “That is perfect for you!” or the question of “Oh! Do you sing?” to which I would typically answer, “No, I play bagpipes.”
In case you’re wondering, sometimes when you tell people one of the ways you connect with the Lord is by playing bagpipes, you get some looks of utter confusion.
“Wait. How can you play bagpipes and worship the Lord at the same time?”
“People can’t sing over bagpipes.”
“They are so LOUD!”
“I’ve never seen bagpipes in a worship band before.”
Typically, in worship settings like most people think of, bagpipes are not even on their radar. If I’m being honest, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of the word “worship” was a person standing up in front of a room with a guitar, leading a group in singing songs to God. But, after hearing different ways that worship is defined, I realized that worship is simply opening a space to invite the Lord to work and praising Him for everything, whether happy or sad. It does not have to look like the typical youth group set up, with the worship leader up front and lyrics projected onto the wall, although there is certainly nothing wrong with that.
All through the Psalms, it says to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord”. So, my way of making a joyful noise is going in the middle of a field or a forest and losing myself in the sweet sound of bagpipes and through that, I praise the Lord for the physical ability He has given me to play this beautiful instrument.
