Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Even more very cool news

This September, several of the churches in our area are getting together for one big worship service. Grace Church, over on the east side of Des Moines, has been around for quite a while, and it has started several "daughter" churches, of which my church is one. The big service is going to be held in the Convention Center downtown and they're expecting there to be three or four thousand people in attendance.

Tonight I was asked if I'd be willing to be the keyboard player for that joint service.

!!!!!!!!

Y'know, I am quite certain you guys are all sick to death of reading just how happy I am, but y'all can all just skip over those posts if you're bored of them. Because I can't NOT keep saying just how happy I am! Maybe it's just because I was so UNhappy for so long that I'm keenly aware of the difference and can't contain my joy at the feast set before me now.

Not to say I'm not also aware of the huge role my former circumstances played in getting me where I am today... I learned so very much in the past ten years at my other church, and it was really only the last three or four that were just unbearable. I learned to put a good face on a bad situation and make the best of it, to be an encourager even when things are just plain crappy, and I learned to let the Spirit take hold of my piano-playing and cut the strings tying me down (i.e., the total reliance on written sheet music rather than the ability to improvise or completely do without). There was one friend in particular (who, not coincidentally, moved away three or four years ago) who encouraged me and stretched me to play in ways I'd never played before. I think everyone ought to have someone like that in their life, who can see the potential locked up inside of you and find ways to unlock it and let it shine.

What's locked up inside of you, waiting to come out? What have you always secretly dreamed of doing or being?

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