Recently…..I was leading music, in a school, for several different grades. I lived something during this 18 weeks, that I already knew, deep down. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. You can run the horse pretty hard, he may take a drink after that, or, you can maybe do some trick to convince them to drink, or you can take a big eyedropper, prop open its mouth, and make them drink (at least a little bit!) So after praying awhile (and being frustrated) Here’s what came to me:
“You have to inspire the choir.” Some of the kids said they didn’t want to sing, I went to God with it. “They don’t want to sing Father, what should I do? I can’t make them sing?”
One of the things they had told me is, “We can’t, we tried, and we can’t.” I thought well, maybe they really believe they can’t. So I came into class the next day, with the Armour Hot dog song, all printed out, and passed out the pages. “Hot dogs, Armour Hot dogs” I began to sing (loudly) until eventually, they all chimed in.
“See?” I said, “you can sing, and I bet you remember a lot of commercial jingles too!” I was thinking about Barry Manilow, how on one of his albums, there was a compiling of many songs from TV Commercials, and how people loved it (and sang along!).
Well, in a matter of time, we were singing (every day!). They wrote their own drill march, we kept things simple, while stretching out and growing some, in the process.
Nobody tried to become “Miley Cyrus” overnight. We just sang. And we sang. And we sang some more.“Practice makes perfect” I said, over and over again.
I also told them “some of you don’t like music, I didn’t like sports.” See, I believe that school is exposure to many things, and someday, we decide what we are going to be (or become). Some of those kids will never sing, (much) except in the shower, or Happy Birthday to their children (when they grow up.) But there may be someone in that class, who achieves great things (in the field of Music!).
With the people of God, it’s a lot the same way. We need exposure to things, but what we will become is ultimately, up to God. We tend to have a lot of classes on reaching out to the lost but, not a lot about how to fix the sink in the church, or anywhere else for that matter. My Husband? Well If they wanted him to teach them plumbing so they could go home, fix their sink and save a few dollars, he would do it in a heartbeat!
But he is not real interested in being taught how to stand up, sit down, do liturgies, or how to pass the offering plate the right way. I’m sorry if that sounds bad but, I can’t say that I blame him. Why do we not nurture the gifts God put inside of people?????????
So often (in church) people are made to feel bad for what they are, rather than being nurtured in the areas God wants to develop. Can you imagine how much success people would have, if someone would just find out what they are good at, and allow them to Develop those gifts? (versus this cookie cutter christian stuff we do?) …….
Listen, we need some Revolutionary thinkers out there! Truly, we do! People that will say, Let’s do this a different way! Let’s try something, we never tried before. Because God just led me to and hey, I am going to do what he said! Can you imagine what might happen? REVIVAL! Results!
Renewal! Praying for you! Maybe the answer lies, in getting out of the Rut and get going in a new direction. HAPPY 2017! Now let’s find out who we are, and develop our gifts!
Laura Grace, Author, Grace to Soar
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