The Game Happens During The Week

I never get to watch my football team, the Washington Redskins very much.  I mean I've been to a preseason game against Cincy a few years back...not sure my toes have ever been the same since.  But after the skins picked up McNabb as QB I figured they might show a few more skins games.
Well add the Cowboys to the mix and you've got the makings of hopefully some good TV.

Something that was said at the end of the game gave me a moment of inspiration so I decided to capture it.  A reporter asked how was McNabb's first game as a Skin.  He said that coach says the game happens during the week at practice and tonight was just having fun.My entire life has been about preparing for opportunity to meet me.  The way we educate ourselves in hopes that the right job will come along at the right time.  Or the way we save our money so that the right bargin will meet us at the right time to take advantage of a deal.

Well being a worship leader is not much different.  How we think about a set, pray about what songs will work, which songs have a theme together, which keys will work well, what tempos will create flow.  Which songs are going to be given back to the congregation to sing and the band drops out.  All that is the weekend during the week.  I can't tell you how many times I find myself hoping no one will walk into my office and find me in tears over the way a song speaks to me.

We spend hours making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.  10's of man hours getting lead sheets right, making sure our instruments have been chosen correctly, then the the full day of setting the stage making sure everything is connected.

Thursday 7PM rolls around and the band has been there since 6:30 getting their rigs set up.  Not the mention the hours of practicing that they have already done at their house before tonight.  Two hours of rehearsal, dialing everything in.  Front of house and lights are making notes of what camera shots to get, where to place the lights based on what the song is doing and making sure the mix is just right.  Knowing full well for some it will be too loud, and others not loud enough.

Then another rehearsal Saturday at 4:30 just to tighten everything up.  Then soundcheck in real time from 5:15 - 5:35.  Then get off the stage and wait for 6:30.  By the time 6:30 comes, we have already done this set countless times.  And we do our best to simply worship and lead well.  Then we do it 3 more times Sunday.

It's the week where we play the game, Sunday is just the band having fun.  I think that applies to everything in life.  Something I'm still trying to get my girls to understand.  They save their energy in soccer practice saying they don't want to be tired for the game?

It is hard to do the things when no one is watching that prepare you to do it well when everyone is watching.  Too many times we think we can show up and sheer talent will carry us through.  Sure but that means, I'm relying on myself every week.

If I prepare so that things become 2nd nature, then I'm out of the way when God shows up and it becomes easier for me to follow.

And that is my inspiration moment for the day.

Blessings,
Charlie

The Spiritual Lessons Of Guitar Building Lesson I

I have a good friend that is building a guitar for me.  After being brought to tear on more than one occasion, I've decided to begin to write down some thoughts that have inspired me to write again.  So many little God stories in the building of this guitar.  It's no wonder Jesus was a carpenter.


I guess the process of how this got started is should be the first post.  When I moved back from Dallas I discovered that Cincinnati was one of the allergy capitals of the world.  I immediately began staying sick.  So I sought an ENT.  Enter, Dr. Ric DeVore.  After a few visits and an allergy test that revealed I'm allergic to everything except a sycamore tree, surgery was required.  My voice dramatically improved as did my breathing.  


Fast forward 6 years of so.  I'm at a Cincinnati Cyclones game and I get hugged by this guy before I get a chance to see who it is.  After I catch my breathe, I realize it's DeVore.  Hadn't seen him in years but I considered him a friend and knew he played drums.


He went one way in the arena and I went the other way.  When my wife and I took our seats we turn around and there is Dr. DeVore and his family.  I took that as the little sign from God.  I turned around and asked if he wanted to play drums for me in the June.  As it turns out I didn't know he and his family were in the middle to looking for a church to call home.


Then there is my friend Jeff Fortenbery, the guitar builder.  I guess one day he needed an ENT and ended up in the DeVore Office.  They started talking and realized they were both into rare woods that they had collected for both building.  One built furniture and fly rods and the other built guitars.


Fast forward some more and I end up with a rather expensive piece of wood donated from one of them to the other to build a guitar for me.  There is so much more to this story.  But for now, I'm reminding myself that chance encounters are never chance.  That God breathes on all the encounters in the life of believers.  That the people we meet during everyday life are woven into our lives to show Christ.  I've heard of my friends on interviews that ended up sharing Christ to their potential boss or a chance encounter at a Kroger or a gas station that set people on a path to hear for God that day.


You just never know!