My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you—I whom you have delivered. (Ps. 71:23)
I’ll never forget an evening I once spent in prison. A few classmates and I joined our professor once a month to go into a men’s prison nearby. We would spend the evening with inmates who chose to come out and see us. We would sing a worship set with them, our professor would give a quick message, and then we’d all sit together in fellowship afterward.
On a particular night we went, something in the atmosphere felt different. As a few of the band members sang “Reckless Love,” the inmates joined us in singing loudly, “And I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away”—something unlike anything I had seen in all my monthly visits.
The worship wasn’t pretty. There were no harmonies filling in, many of the men singing were tone deaf, but it stood out to me as the greatest moment of worship I had ever encountered. Those men understood better than many of us the unimaginable love that God gives us freely. Their discordant praise was the greatest shout for joy I’ve ever been a part of. That night, after catching a glimpse of the deep love the Father has for all his people, a number of the men gave their hearts to God.
Thank God for his elaborate love for you.
Shannon Nickerson is a recent graduate from Kingswood University, and current multimedia coordinator at her local church. She enjoys photography, teaching, and graphic design.
© 2021 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
