Trust and Obey

Maybe I've mentioned before that I sing with the praise team at my church. Harmony is my thing and I enjoy the challenge of the alto part.

I'm not a soloist or a particularly gifted musician. I can match a tone and sort of read music and rhythms remembered from my grade school days of playing band instruments. Although, I sang in the choir in 9th grade and rang chords in a rural chapter of the Sweet Adeline's a few years back, I am v-e-r-y far from professional.

The rest of the Praise Team members have similar credentials, although some have  more training, lovely voices and the chutzpah to carry off a solo.

For the past few weeks, we have been working on music for Easter. With much prayer and Divine guidance, our director chose an especially stirring musical called, The Story.  Crafted by master arranger and orchestrator David Hamilton, The Story presents God's redemptive plan for His people from Genesis through Revelation.

The creators have scripted an abbreviated version that focuses on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This 37 minute excerpt is the focus of our Easter service.

On Easter Sunday, the original concert video will be playing on the big screen, sans sound. The praise team, hidden behind a tall, black curtain, will provide the story through the lyrics of 5 amazing songs intermingled with readings. 

We are very excited about the powerful drama, music and words presented in The Story, but man is the music difficult! Keep in mind, the songs were originally composed for the real pros -  Stephen Curtis Chapman, Natalie Grant and Michael W. Smith for instance!

There are several challenging solos, not to mention overall tricky harmonies, very high notes, very low notes and intricate rhythms!

With Easter falling on the first Sunday in April this year, we started working on The Story right after Christmas.  I have to admit I was still tired from extra Christmas practices and did my share of grumbling about moving right into longer practices for Easter!

After lots of praying and soul searching,  and truth spoken in Love from my sista', Ruth, I jumped in and decided to Trust and Obey.  To Obey, meant working hard on my part at home, making a fool of myself driving around in my car singing along with the alto CD and attending all practices.

A week ago, the director, realizing we were not quite as far along as we needed to be, added more practices. OK I'm not going to lie - my grumbling started anew, but only for a day.

I've continued to Obey, working hard and showing up for extra practices. Easter Sunday is a week and a half away. We have four more practices to clean up the rough parts and run through a dress rehearsal. There are a lot of worries within the team that we will not pull this off. 

Isn't it time to Trust?

As our Pastor said in his recent sermon about Noah, "Even though he was 500 years old, with no known ship-building experience, Noah chose to Obey God and build the Ark, Noah worked really hard and all along the way God showed up. Really, how do you think Noah would've managed to herd all those animals onto the Ark without God's help?"

That's about where I'm at with the Easter musical. I'll keep working hard, but I want to give God room to show up and make us sound like all the professional Christian artist rolled into one heavenly chorus!

Or at least to bring a joyful noise and a powerful message to the ears of the congregants and visitors on this upcoming Easter morning.

In God I Trust,

Miriam

Who needs google?

One of my hobbies/gifts is singing and for the past few years I've been blessed with the opportunity to lend my alto voice to the praise team at my church.

When I first started singing in front of the congregation with a microphone one inch from my face, I have to admit it was pretty nerve-wracking. That seems a long time ago now and I'm comfortable helping lead worship each Sunday.  Just don't ask me to sing a solo!

Each Thursday evening, the PT practices for one or two hours, depending on whether we are learning new music or just brushing up songs from our repertoire. This is a time of worship and fellowship and serves to prepare us for Sunday morning worship at 9:30 a.m. sharp.

This past week, our very gifted and hard-working director, Mary, was on a family vacation and her right hand man and jack of all instruments, Bill, had a last minute obligation and was not available to lead our practice. 

So Mary sent us an email with the song list for Sunday and a request that we arrive at church by 8 a.m. so we could prep before service.  In addition to listing songs we've sung many times, she also included this note:

"We will be singing 'Great I Am' for our closing song so if you need to brush up on it, be sure to listen on either YouTube or Spotify."

Well, her message hit my inbox on Thursday and by Saturday morning, I still had not done my homework. That morning, I had some errands to run and as I headed back home, the book I was listening to (on CD) ended.
 
I didn't have my iPod plugged in, so I was forced to turn on FM radio.  I'm not a big fan of listening to FM radio (too repetitive), but it's hard for me to drive around without listening/singing along to something!

My preset is WCSG, the local Christian radio station.  

As I caught the end of one song, I was reminded of Mary's email suggesting we look up "Great I am". Since I was headed home, I was repeating in my head "Google the Great I Am... Google the Great I Am," so I wouldn't forget. (Alas, the old memory is more a sieve than a steel trap these days.)

Then the next song started on the radio.... "I wanna be close... close to your side....So Heaven is real, and death is a lie."

Yep, you got it - that is the beginning of Great I Am.  

I sang along loudly and proudly all the way home, feeling confident that I was ready for Sunday morning.

Who needs google when you've got God?

With a song in my heart,

Miriam