Giving Myself Away

During the summer of 2005, my brother and I were inspired by God to begin a monthly young adult worship gathering in New Orleans. We decided to call this monthly meeting “HIMnI,” after constantly hearing locals use this colloquialism in their conversations.

Shortly after the vision came a little test called Katrina. Should we pause our plans as we awaited the fate of New Orleans? Well, does hell wait? Of course not, so our mission became no hell for those grievously affected by Katrina. The famous missionary C. T. Studd put it best: “Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I desire to build a rescue mission within a yard of hell.” Our hell became the ravaged city of New Orleans. Our rescue mission became a monthly worship gathering. Our rescuer became not the helping hands of volunteers, but the hurting hands of our sweet Savior, who was pierced for the Big Easy’s transgressions and crushed for the Crescent City’s iniquities. We sought to restore peace, and worshipping Jesus became the only way we knew how.

The impact of Katrina on our city strengthened our desire to impact New Orleans for Christ. During our year of prayer and preparation, God providentially introduced us to likeminded people who also wanted to facilitate man’s greatest privilege in the world—the privilege to worship. Oftentimes we were nearly derailed by doubts and difficulties, since the majority of the world believed the citizens of New Orleans should devote themselves fully to physical restoration. And while this continues to remain a top priority, Christ-followers in New Orleans are firmly convinced that spiritual restoration is always preeminent. In fact, HIMnI finally launched in September 2006 in order to meet several needs, both spiritually and physically.

This September will mark the beginning of our third year, and much has been accomplished for the kingdom of God and for the glory of our King. HIMnI’s purpose is to inspire worship and action. Our goal is not to increase worship attendance, but rather worship participation through preaching, music, church involvement, and community action. We love the Word of God, we love worshipping God, and we love becoming the love of God in the church and in the community.

It is strange for me to measure the results of HIMnI with leftover hamburgers, but there is no other way more befitting. After our latest HIMnI in May, we decided to host a “Grill and Chill” barbeque before breaking for the summer. To our surprise, only half the people showed up, leaving us with more than enough food. Rather than wasting it, our group decided to take the rest of our food to Tent City, a homeless community underneath the Claiborne Bridge. For the rest of that Friday evening, we found ourselves hanging out with the homeless, giving away whatever food we had left, and even some of us giving away the very clothes on our backs. As I think about that night and about two great years of HIMnI, I thank God we are learning to give ourselves away. As long as God permits, I pray God will continue to inspire us to give ourselves away even more. I pray our monthly meetings continue to challenge us to pray just as Jesus prayed in the garden, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).