In early February, we awoke at 7 am from a text. (Well, my husband woke to it, my cell phone stays off until the day's writing is done).
Members after 30 years were stepping down. I cried. I'm not the only one who cried, probably.
It's been quite a year. As with any challenge, we've seen God work in ways we'd never imagine.
On this cold and wet morning, Kevin shared with me his outlook on the year:
The text, he said, was not from the sender, it was from God. The entire situation, he said, was God telling us it was time to step up, and we did, but He also is reminded us this change would not be easy.
A new position means new mistakes.
Patience, grasshopper!
Fly, crash, and...burn?
We heard of a virus outbreak in China, and then Italy shut down, then our news here was all about COVID, and then toilet paper shortages, and $10 bottles of hand sanitizer...
The entire world shut down. We experienced quarantine in our homes. Many of us stayed home from work, school, retail stores, restaurants…
And weekly Sunday church services stopped.
First, we all kind of liked being home more. We gave Fido and Fluffy more attention than ever. We took up new hobbies like baking bread, sewing, piecing together puzzles, binging Netflix, blogging, etc.
Introverts were in their glory. (I ‘m only saying that because I am one!)
By Easter, we faced another challenge: my husband Kevin had to overcome his dislike of being on video. Our church added taped sermons to its YouTube channel to broadcast to our church family stuck at home, we’ve since kept it going with a weekly live stream.
We returned in June, and forever thankful our entire team was (still) committed and on board.
Kevin and I were in the car yesterday and were looking back on our year:
I sat with a notebook capturing what wise words come out of his mouth.
Here is the most profound thing he said: “ God said, ‘Time to step up. I’ve prepared you enough this time. (We did have 4 years, plus our 35+ year combined live music experiences.) And, also, it’s not supposed to be easy.”
It’s not supposed to be without mistakes.
I was reading a book recently, when God showed me this metaphor:
How does a mother eagle get its babies to want to leave the nest? The mother begins removing all the cushiony feathers from the nest until all that’s left is the poking sticks and branches. It takes away its comfort so the baby eagle will want to learn how to leave its nest!
I know this is how many times in my life I’ve approached change. I was more or less forced to by avoiding comfort!!
Kevin and I were comfortable helping in worship and stepping in to lead for these past five years!
I would often ask someone else to step in and do the talking part (between songs/announcements, etc.) I’d resent when no one else would.
Then I’d start hearing God say, “If no one else is stepping up, don’t you think I expect YOU to do it?”
"If I’m giving you this opportunity, isn’t it because I know you can do it?"
“Isn’t this all for my glory anyway?”
As change does, it hurts, cuts, scabs, scars, and then heals better than ever. When change is tragic, it leaves scars. This change was not so bad. I would say any injuries we endured are from God bruising our own egos, which is great because God wants humble servants. And everyone on our team has a heart to serve Jesus.
Here are some of our
goals for the worship team in 2021:
·
Continue learning/ teaching congregation one new
God-glorifying song each month; add these to repertoire
· Keep lyrics on my stand just
in case there is a glitch, lyric screen freezes, etc.
· Grow tighter with our team members, and musically
· Bring on one more musician as God leads
· Think of ways to encourage others to share
special music
What I feel God
calling us to do:
·
Stay right where we are! And stay obedient.
Trust Him
· Be prepared for a turbulent year potentially;
armor up (prayer,etc.)
· Share on this blog and Instagram. If you’d like
to follow, can do so here.
How has 2020 changed you for the better, or in general can
you say you’re better off from change? Also, did you ever hear that about
eagles? That’s new to me, and I’m going to go and research about those beautiful creatures some more.
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