It's all in the Mindset

Friday evening was one of the most-anticipated evenings in all of March. I’d been counting down the minutes for over ten weeks. I was concocting images in my mind of what it would be like. With three concerts behind me, I had a pretty good idea of what this one would be like. I’d seen both bands before, although separately. Now they were playing together: the one and only David Crowder*Band and Third Day. It was the closest thing to heaven on earth!

Third Day was much the same as before: they were there to entertain you, as Christians, and then point you to God. His purpose of the concert was to entertain you and then turn the attention upon God. He spoke for around ten minutes at the end, giving a devotional and alter call. But his mindset was first on entertainment, because that’s what the tour was about.

But there was a different atmosphere when David started playing first at 7:00 pm. When I’d seen him twice before as part of the Passion Worship Band Conferences, the attitude presented was strongly God-centered. You came to worship, not see David Crowder perform. His mindset was God first. I think David carried this through on the Wherever You Are tour too. He did not have a bold stage presence, as did Mac from Third Day. His mindset was on reflecting the glory to God, secondly on entertaining.

These two different mindsets were presented and from them came two different responses. You merely watched Third Day perform, and sang along if you knew the song. The crowd was excited just to see the band in person. During David Crowder’s set, though, his energy and passion for God was brought out in the music and translated into the crowd, firing them up. And when I say fired up, I mean they were hyper—jumping and dancing and spinning about. David has a passion for God and he showed it in his music.

So what’s the big deal about all this? Well, the mindset of the performers is what brought about the different responses from the crowd. This applies to us, too. The Apostle Paul says we are runners in a race. The attention is upon us and how we live ours lives. Our mindset plays a key part in how we live: defeated, hopeless, and tired, or cheerful, enthusiastic, and passionate for God. The choice is yours. I repeat to you the challenge which Paul said in Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus.” He goes on to list the qualities which should be in your mind, as a follower of Christ. I’d like to encourage you to read and study Philippians 2, and learn what your mindset should be!

Until next time, God bless!