The majority of Christians love musical worship in some form or another. However, 14-year-old Noah Humpherys lives for it.
According to his mom, Cheryl, Noah’s nickname is “Hype-man.” For all those who have seen Noah at a Christian concert, it’s obvious how true that is.
Noah usually has a seat on the front row but actually does little sitting. Before the concert starts, he darts back and forth in the front of the auditorium, raising his arms and hyping up the crowd. During the concert, if the crowd is standing, he’s standing.
“He earned that nickname. He is hyped and is willing to try to get the whole crowd hyped,” Cheryl said.
To those who haven’t seen him it might seem that this is an exaggeration, but his mother attests that it’s all true.
“On certain songs, he’s jamming out and enjoying the music. Then you’ll see him go into worship mode. He throws those hands in the air and is closing his eyes and singing. And you know, he’s not faking it. My mama heart knows,” Cheryl said.
Trials
Noah has always had a deep love of music and of worship, possibly related to trials he encountered due to developmental delays caused by being born with a hole in his heart.
“His love of worship started when he was little. Everything was a microphone or a drum. Probably when he was 2, we realized that we couldn’t understand him but eventually recognized what he was doing was worship music. He would also just walk up and down preaching to his grandparents on the couch. We wouldn’t know what he was saying, but we believed he was preaching,” she said.
This was happening during the years it took to repair his heart defect — and at a time of constant physical struggles in Noah’s life.
Twice the doctors attempted surgery to close the hole with a balloon — once when he was an infant and a second time when he was 2. It wasn’t successfully repaired until he was 4.
During that time, his oxygen saturation when he was healthy stayed around 80%. This lack of oxygen during his developmental years caused medical issues, including epilepsy.
Leaning into God
Now in eighth grade, Noah has delays with fine motor and cognitive skills.
“We have had to lean into God more than anything else in our lives with this situation. We believe that God’s got His hands on him and has a plan for him. We just don’t know what that is,” Cheryl said.
But being in special education classes hasn’t kept Noah from displaying his naturally outgoing self. Saying he’s “very social,” his mother said he knows everyone at school and everyone knows him.
His outgoing nature is evident even before going into a concert’s venue.
“With the concerts, really, it’s not just about the music. It’s his love for people. He gets energy from being around people and he doesn’t meet strangers. If we’re standing in line for a concert, he’s going to meet people that’s around him.
“I’ve got so many friends on my Facebook page that are from people who were standing in line with us. I wouldn’t have asked their names and where they were from. I wouldn’t have started up a conversation with them,” Noah’s mother said.
‘Not restrained’
Though he loves the people performing the concerts, Noah doesn’t worship them. He’s not star-struck in any way. He considers them his friends, his buddies.
But that’s not to say that he doesn’t love interacting with them.
Noah said that one of his favorite moments was during a We the Kingdom concert when he “got pulled up on stage and got to sing with them.”
Cheryl explained further.
“They were about to sing something a cappella, and he kept starting the song before them. Finally, they said, ‘OK, Noah, just come on up here.’ So they pulled him up on stage, and he got to sing the whole song with them.”
Other concert attendees have told Noah’s mom that “we should all worship like Noah because he doesn’t have boundaries. He’s not restrained. If he’s feeling it, he’s showing it.”
“They’re right about that,” Cheryl agreed. “Why are we not all so enthusiastic when worshipping Jesus?”
When he’s not at school or a concert, he spends a lot of his time worshipping at home on his own. He loves to play around on his drum kit — having started when he was 4 — and he has his own stage to perform on.
“He does a concert — somebody’s set list — on his stage every day, and he’ll sing and he’ll give testimony to nobody because he’s just in there playing pretend,” Cheryl said.
“His love, especially early on, was just so innocent. It really made me understand how much we’re made to worship. Worship has come into our family so strongly.”
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