December 16, 2018

I think I’m ready.

I practiced for an hour and a half each of the last three days. The synth player, bass player, and guitar player are all gone this week. It’s just me and the drummer.

I practiced each song with the videos on youtube.com. By Saturday, I was having fun practicing. I had the first three songs memorized.

Judges 5:2, “When they let down their hair in Israel, they let it blow wild in the wind. The people volunteered with abandon, bless God!” The Message

I admit I was a little nervous. So much could go wrong. I would be playing 2 keyboards and the pedals are iffy. One has a taped up cord and the other lost a screw.

The keyboards also shut off automatically. The big one turns on to recorded, obnoxious music. It takes pushing three buttons and turning a dial to set.

Judges 6:12, 13, 14, 16, “The angel of God appeared to him and said, ‘God is with you, O mighty warrior!’ (13) Gideon replied, ‘With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us?…’ (14) But God faced him directly: ‘Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?…’ (16) God said to him, ‘I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.’ ” The Message

We set the keyboards up on a double stand. I used 36″ of gaffe tape to keep the bottom keyboard from sliding. I taped down one pedal and ignored the one with the missing screw.

I split the big keyboard between the bass and the pads sound. I started practicing and it sounded awful!

This keyboard made everything sound muddy. The worship director asked me to play the songs on the other keyboard.

I switched but it didn’t have the pads sound. He didn’t like the bass part I was playing. He played a pattern on the drum and asked me to duplicate it.

“I need to play piano, synth, bass, and now a drum riff?” I exclaimed! (The worker from the Civic Center burst out laughing.)

The worship director decided I could play straight piano. We started the first song. It was so empty with just piano and drums. I layered strings with the piano. And played the other keyboard for the softest parts of the songs.

After practice, one of the vocalists said, “You look like a whipped pup.”

I told her I felt like a whipped pup! I explained about practicing all three parts. We threw out everything I practiced and I wasn’t sure what I was doing.

Then the worship director said, “Pamela, why don’t you pray for the service.”

“Perfect,” I replied, “I’m the one with the bent attitude.” I prayed the most disjointed prayer.

I didn’t know what I was doing now!

God whispered, “If you knew exactly what to do, you wouldn’t need Me.” Boy, did I!

Judges 6:23, “But God reassured him, ‘Easy now. Don’t panic. You won’t die.’ ” The Message

I ran into the guitar player after playing. (He is recovering from a broken arm.) We had a hot chocolate bar and I wasn’t going to miss out on that! We both got hot chocolate and he told me I did a good job.

God did a good job.

Has God ever switched things up on you?

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