Last night Bobby, Ty and I went to the Indescribable Tour concert featuring worship leaders Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and speaker Louie Giglio. None of us could really be described as fans of Chris Tomlin, but were drawn to the concert because of our appreciation for the writing, both songs and books, of Matt Redman, a worship leader/songwriter from England. We enjoyed singing along with him as he lead six of his own songs that we are very familiar with from worship at our own church, and probably most of you are familiar with, such as Blessed Be Your Name and Heart of Worship.

Chris Tomlin was the main man at this event, as the tour is named after his new hit song Indescribable. His style and personality are very different from Redman’s. Redman comes across very simple, gentle and even somewhat serious as it was a concert but clearly his portion of it was a time of worship that was focused and reverent….his songs also reflect this about him. Tomlin on the other hand is much louder, distracted and if I may say so…a bit showy. In turn his songs reflect such as they are more “fun” and lyric wise not resonating nearly as deep as Redman’s. Tomlin is a worship leader and has several good songs. His opening three songs were really good. I’ve heard them so many times, but he did them the best I’ve ever heard them done! I really liked the first part of the night which was comprised of Tomlin leading some of his worship style songs and Redman doing the same with the whole audience singing along. The second half of the night it became more concert-ish and performance oriented and I wasn’t as into that part of the evening.

I really enjoyed the talk from Louie Giglio. He took us through a brief lesson in astronomy showing pictures of galaxies and stars billions of miles away from earth. Giglio referred several times back to Psalm147:4 “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.” By showing how minuscule earth is in comparison to the vast universe he brought home well the psalmists awe and wonder, “Lord, what is man that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?” (Psalm 144:3)

I am not very knowledgeable in the realm of science, so just hearing the astronomical measurement in distance that stars and galaxies are from us is staggering. Coupling this knowledge with the fact that all in the heavens was created by God alone (John 1:1-3) and continues in His very hand. Our little planet is just a minute speck in the realm of all things created by our magnificent God. I was deeply impressed with the reality that God is just measureless in size and scope. My mind cannot wrap around Him. Even more staggering then, is the reality of the Gospel. Hebrews 1:2-3 gives a glimpse of this wonder as it tells us that God has appointed Jesus “heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He has by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”

In light of this the reality of the Gospel is just so mind-blowing. That Jesus, as God, who created the great expanse and complexity of the universe, not just our little world, but everything that exists in the vast realm of the universe. That this God would humble Himself so much that He could confine Himself to the tiny planet earth and even more so, to human flesh so that He could die as the sacrifice for the sins of you and me… How can we grasp this, let alone ignore it? In light of this truth, I feel overwhelmed that so many people walk this earth thinking that life is all about them and turning their hearts against their Creator. We must face the greatness of God in the reality of Christ.

I was intensely touched by this talk but was quickly brought back to the degrading fact of man’s sin when I overheard some girls in the restroom say, “That guy’s talk was pretty good…” Another interrupted, “Are you kidding? It was so boring I was almost asleep at the end!” Clearly not all people are fallen down before Him. Maybe we still want to foolishly think that in the vastness of creation that things could still somehow revolve around us. Maybe we have closed our eyes and ears to the world around us that is crying out the majesty of God. The sad truth is that we are all guilty of this because we have all sinned. This is sin: I don’t need God. How foolish we are.

This talk shed a whole new light on the title song Indescribable. When I first heard this song I thought it was somewhat cheesy and simplistic in saying that God cannot be described. I thought, surely we could ponder who He is deep enough to describe Him in some way. But after Giglio’s talk the song held much more meaning. The chorus says: