My Holding Place
The Church that I work at publishes a newsletter for my division - Worship Arts Ministries. I wrote the front page article for the month of February. I thought I would share it with you all because you can understand what I have been doing the past couple of months.
Have you ever been in a place in which you keep asking yourself, “what am I doing here?” For the last six months I have been asking myself that question every single day. I mean, here I am, a lawyer, working in the Worship Arts Ministry at a Church! So, it isn’t a stretch that I keep asking God, “why in the world am I here?”
The really funny thing about all of this is - I can’t even sing. My own grandmother will tell you I need singing lessons. Admittedly though, I did sing in church once, I was five. My grandparents asked if I could play my guitar and sing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and for whatever reason their pastor agreed. So, that Sunday morning I sang my little song and when everyone clapped I thought they wanted an encore. Much to the dismay of my father, I broke into Dolly Parton’s “Workin’ Nine to Five.” My family was mortified, and the little incident kind of ended my singing career. In addition, I imagine after reading this, Marc will stop asking me to join the chancel choir, and I suspect he might change his position about clapping in Church.
On top of not being able to sing, my suggestions for Sunday morning music always seem to make Marc and Mary Virginia laugh. Don’t get me wrong, they are always very gracious in hearing out my ideas, but they didn’t think Joan Baez was appropriate for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. I do think they were right, but I am still maintaining my campaign for a Chancel Choir rendition of “Rock-A-Ma-Soul.”
Putting all of that aside, this job has been an absolute unexpected blessing. Honestly, when I first began work I thought of this as a ‘holding place’ kind of job – something to do between my education and the beginning of my career. Obviously, that idea was my own limited view of this experience, because God has made it so much bigger. I feel as though Moses might have felt after God spoke to him in the burning bush. Moses must have then realized that the long period he spent with the Midianites was preparing him for leadership of his people.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think God has some grand scheme for me to be a great Moses-like leader, and I am certainly not rounding up people for some long journey. However, I am beginning to realize this experience has taught me to better relate to people who are different from me, and I have certainly learned to be more compassionate. These are things that you cannot learn from a text book. Moreover, I am sure there are things I have learned and blessings I have received which I have yet to recognize.
I believe God teaches us and bestows blessings on us even when we think we are in “holding places.” The only thing that is limiting us is our own vision of those places. No matter where I end up in my career, I will always be thankful for my time here, the people I met, and the people I worked with – especially Marc and Mary Virginia.
Have you ever been in a place in which you keep asking yourself, “what am I doing here?” For the last six months I have been asking myself that question every single day. I mean, here I am, a lawyer, working in the Worship Arts Ministry at a Church! So, it isn’t a stretch that I keep asking God, “why in the world am I here?”
The really funny thing about all of this is - I can’t even sing. My own grandmother will tell you I need singing lessons. Admittedly though, I did sing in church once, I was five. My grandparents asked if I could play my guitar and sing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and for whatever reason their pastor agreed. So, that Sunday morning I sang my little song and when everyone clapped I thought they wanted an encore. Much to the dismay of my father, I broke into Dolly Parton’s “Workin’ Nine to Five.” My family was mortified, and the little incident kind of ended my singing career. In addition, I imagine after reading this, Marc will stop asking me to join the chancel choir, and I suspect he might change his position about clapping in Church.
On top of not being able to sing, my suggestions for Sunday morning music always seem to make Marc and Mary Virginia laugh. Don’t get me wrong, they are always very gracious in hearing out my ideas, but they didn’t think Joan Baez was appropriate for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. I do think they were right, but I am still maintaining my campaign for a Chancel Choir rendition of “Rock-A-Ma-Soul.”
Putting all of that aside, this job has been an absolute unexpected blessing. Honestly, when I first began work I thought of this as a ‘holding place’ kind of job – something to do between my education and the beginning of my career. Obviously, that idea was my own limited view of this experience, because God has made it so much bigger. I feel as though Moses might have felt after God spoke to him in the burning bush. Moses must have then realized that the long period he spent with the Midianites was preparing him for leadership of his people.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think God has some grand scheme for me to be a great Moses-like leader, and I am certainly not rounding up people for some long journey. However, I am beginning to realize this experience has taught me to better relate to people who are different from me, and I have certainly learned to be more compassionate. These are things that you cannot learn from a text book. Moreover, I am sure there are things I have learned and blessings I have received which I have yet to recognize.
I believe God teaches us and bestows blessings on us even when we think we are in “holding places.” The only thing that is limiting us is our own vision of those places. No matter where I end up in my career, I will always be thankful for my time here, the people I met, and the people I worked with – especially Marc and Mary Virginia.
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