I just got home from choir practice. I have to say there are many Thursday evenings when I think about leaving the warmth of the house to head out into the cold for our choir practices and I just want to stay home and skip it. Usually I’m mostly comfortable with the song we’re going to sing on Sunday, so hey, why not? But then I’d miss the first run-through of the newest piece in our repertoire. So, I bundle up and trudge out.
The thing is... I love to sing. I mean I really LOVE to sing. My voice is not technically trained or beautiful, but I’m a fairly strong alto. I have a pretty good ear for the key and I’m a relatively confident singer, not loud, but confident and strong enough that the other two altos prefer me sandwiched in the middle. My voice blends better with others than standing out alone on a solo anyway. I recognize that and am okay with that, because it isn’t about being a soloist. I love to sing… just because. I’ll never make a living out of it.
Being out of work, I come across a lot of advice to look at the things I love to do and try to find a job in an area that involves that passion. Okay. I’d starve if I tried to live off my voice. I think it is okay to just love something and not gain employment from it. On the other hand, I love to write, and I wish someone WOULD pay me to do that, but in the meantime, here I am. My perspective on this is that God gave me the gift of a voice good enough to sing with a choir and to help lead the music for our congregation so that I can glorify Him, not so I can be employed because of it.
When I was young a neighbor gave me a framed quote that read, “The Lord respects me when I work, but He loves me when I sing.” I can not adequately explain to you how that quote has shaped my life, and not just in regard to my singing with the choir. When I was a child, I took this pretty literally and was happy that my singing was pleasing to God. As I grew older I began to understand that while the Lord had gifted me with a German work ethic of trying to always do my best work…ALL THE TIME, and that He respected me working hard and doing my best, what really pleased the Lord was doing something to glorify Him. It didn’t matter if I did my best work on something; if it didn’t glorify Him, it didn’t much matter. However, if whatever I did, be it writing a blog entry or shoveling my neighbor’s snow, if I did it to glorify God (to maybe enhance your own relationship with Him, or to serve as Christ to my neighbor, or to be a pleasant face in a stodgy office) then THAT would please Him, even if it wasn’t perfect.
When I was in college I read somewhere that the artist who sculpted the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, when questioned why he was bothering to spend so much time on the top of Lady Liberty’s head as no one would ever see it (there were no planes at the time), is said to have replied, “Because God will see it.” Aha! A man after my own heart! God knows when we put forth our best effort and when we do it for His glory, or for our own.
The Lord respects me when I work, but he loves me when I sing…laugh…write…care for another…use my God-given gifts and talents…for His glory.
That is why we were created. And so I sing.
The thing is... I love to sing. I mean I really LOVE to sing. My voice is not technically trained or beautiful, but I’m a fairly strong alto. I have a pretty good ear for the key and I’m a relatively confident singer, not loud, but confident and strong enough that the other two altos prefer me sandwiched in the middle. My voice blends better with others than standing out alone on a solo anyway. I recognize that and am okay with that, because it isn’t about being a soloist. I love to sing… just because. I’ll never make a living out of it.
Being out of work, I come across a lot of advice to look at the things I love to do and try to find a job in an area that involves that passion. Okay. I’d starve if I tried to live off my voice. I think it is okay to just love something and not gain employment from it. On the other hand, I love to write, and I wish someone WOULD pay me to do that, but in the meantime, here I am. My perspective on this is that God gave me the gift of a voice good enough to sing with a choir and to help lead the music for our congregation so that I can glorify Him, not so I can be employed because of it.
When I was young a neighbor gave me a framed quote that read, “The Lord respects me when I work, but He loves me when I sing.” I can not adequately explain to you how that quote has shaped my life, and not just in regard to my singing with the choir. When I was a child, I took this pretty literally and was happy that my singing was pleasing to God. As I grew older I began to understand that while the Lord had gifted me with a German work ethic of trying to always do my best work…ALL THE TIME, and that He respected me working hard and doing my best, what really pleased the Lord was doing something to glorify Him. It didn’t matter if I did my best work on something; if it didn’t glorify Him, it didn’t much matter. However, if whatever I did, be it writing a blog entry or shoveling my neighbor’s snow, if I did it to glorify God (to maybe enhance your own relationship with Him, or to serve as Christ to my neighbor, or to be a pleasant face in a stodgy office) then THAT would please Him, even if it wasn’t perfect.
When I was in college I read somewhere that the artist who sculpted the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, when questioned why he was bothering to spend so much time on the top of Lady Liberty’s head as no one would ever see it (there were no planes at the time), is said to have replied, “Because God will see it.” Aha! A man after my own heart! God knows when we put forth our best effort and when we do it for His glory, or for our own.
The Lord respects me when I work, but he loves me when I sing…laugh…write…care for another…use my God-given gifts and talents…for His glory.
That is why we were created. And so I sing.
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