Blending......

It doesn't seem possible, but it time for the Christmas music program to begin its practices. All the choir members met today to begin the great task ahead of us, learning material we've never heard, notes we don't know if we can reach and committing to hours of practice and sacrificing the "Sunday afternoon nap" which is definitely in the church by-laws of the Baptist church....lol...just kidding.

We have an amazing young man named Eddie as our choir director and he really does know his stuff when it comes to music. I am impressed by his ability but even more impressed by his evident love for our Lord and the relationship that they have. He began the daunting task of teaching each of us our parts; tenors, sopranos, altos and bass, phrase by phrase and measure by measure. Then he would put us all together. I have to admit the sound was much better than I expected for a first practice. As each section sang their part I couldn't help but think how beautiful it was by itself but when you put it all together and could hear the harmony of it all....it was AWESOME! One thing that Eddie said was that we MUST learn to hear the other members, we must learn to listen to the others in our group and they would help us to know if we weren't on key, etc., and we should listen to the ones outside our group to hear the harmony. You see a choir is about a bunch of voices coming together to be one grand sound. He had us all stand and form a circle so that we were in very close proximity of each other and we sang the few measures we learned today. He then asked how it sounded and everyone said "Better! We could hear each other." I immediately thought, it is when we take the time to get close to each other and quit keeping every one at arms length that we "hear each other".

Wow....spiritually, we need to be working together toward one grand work....reaching the lost, ministering to the hurting, and loving each other. How do we do that??? It begins when we realize there is someone other than just us in the choir (so to speak). It is when we being to listen to the people who aren't in our close circle. For example I don't often mix with mothers of pre-schoolers because my girls are in their teens and our lives are at very different places but I shouldn't be so tuned into my life that I can't hear when they aren't in harmony. Maybe they are hurting, need someone who's "been there and done that" to come alongside and just let them know they are going to make it. Do you see what I'm trying to say?

I want our choir to sing in perfect harmony and make a beautiful, joyful noise unto the Lord in worship to Him. So I'm willing to sacrifice those naps on Sunday afternoons and I'm willing to "listen" to the other sections of the choir and make sure I'm blending with them and I'm definitely depending on the other ladies in my group of sopranos to help keep me on key. Let's all be willing to do the same in life. Let's blend to make our service to Christ BEAUTIFUL!