Leaving it Behind

I'm done with class for the day, well except for choir. I don't really count that as a class though. For the most part I love going to choir. Last night we had our second concert. It went one hundred million times better than our first. More than that even, if that's possible. There were still wrong notes and some forgotten words, but everyone was so much more relaxed and the attitudes were so much better.

Things were a bit rushed beforehand because we ate dinner before the concert (usually we eat afterward), but we still had about the usual amount of time for our devos. I had talked to our chaplain about a week and a half ago and suggested the topic of unity. There's been a lot of dissention in choir, especially amoungst my section. This week that's really changed though, and hopefully last night put a lid on it all. Our chaplain read a really cool section from a devotional book about unity. Unfortunately, she has a very soft voice and that doesn't work too well with one hundred girls. After she spoke I had the opportunity to share a bit and say what God had put on my heart the last couple of weeks. I read Philippians 2:1-6 as well. I'm so glad God's word just speaks for itself. It's so powerful. And I talked loudly, so I think more people got the point ha. Things just went really well, despite my absentmindedness and non clarity of thought. I love it when things go that way though, when you are so uncapable you know it has to be God.

From there we started the concert. Things went well. The building wasn't 100 degrees like last week. We were smiling this week. We sounded heaps better this week. There was a former choir member sitting near the front with one of our members who was sick and couldn't perform. The whole time she had the brightest smile and encouraging expressions. Then she started crying during one of the songs. She was so encouraging to me, without even saying a word. Afterward I went up to her and said, "hey I just wanted to thank you for being such an encouragement to me while we sang." She half laughed then went on about how beautiful we were and how we made her cry. It was cool to talk with her a bit and some of the other returners that knew her.

After that talk I walked over to another table. I don't really remember who I was talking to or anything, but a woman (I think she was someone in the choir's mom) stopped me for a second to talk to me. She told me that she was at this concert and the last one (which is why I think she's a parent) and that each time she was really encouraged by the way I sang and the meaning I put into it. She said I was her favorite person to watch, and that I shouldn't change. I was blown away. Yeah, I've been trying to be joyful up there and have it be genuine as well, but I never thought it would stand out that much. Praise God that I could encourage someone like that. That's totally what it's all about, and it was so encouraging to hear that from her.

I guess I want to have that impact so badly because that's what the choir did for me when I saw them for the first time. It was my sophomore year of high school, and they came and sang at our chapel. I was blown away not only by their skill, but with the meaning they sung with. It was like nothing I'd ever seen or heard before. That was what got me interested in this university, and now I'm here, singing in that same choir, hoping that God will use me to minister to people in just a fraction of the way they did for me. God's so cool how he works.