The Big Dream

So...I want to tell you a story if you will indulge me for a moment or two. It's the story of a dream...and of the Dream Giver.

For many years, I've had a desire to do something musically, and as my faith continued to grow and mature, the desire was certainly focused on Christian music. about 3 years back while leading a small group in our home, the topic of using your gifts and talents to serve God kept coming up. While my fellow small group members regularly urged me (it was nagging, really) that I had some musical talent, I continually backpedaled from that. You see, I believed then (and still do) that my talent is mediocre. Why would God want mediocre when He's gifted sooooo many so incredibly (don't you just want to smack Steven Curtis Chapman some times for all the talent HE got?).

Well...after much prodding, nagging...and prayer, I finally gave in. I said "God...I don't know what you want to try to do with this meager offering, but here it is". I gave the dream over to the Dream Giver.

Well...He got busy. First, the idea for the Bud 'n Bubba musical comedy act was born, so I got busy writing a few songs for them (that are CERTAIN to be classics someday). I thought "this is great...silliness with a message about Christ...this is perfect. God's gonna make this big". I was also called on at the church I was attending at the time to begin to be the fill-in worship leader. After a time or two of doing that, it was clear to me that this was NOT what God wanted me to do with music...it certainly was not what I wanted to do.

Well...God has a sense of humor. About a year and a half ago, it was time to move on to another church in the area. We felt led to a certain place...a place that had just had a minister removed along with his wife and daughter who were the worship leaders. This place had a need. They had a group of people who stepped up and stepped in to fill the gap to lead worship temporarily (praise God for willing servants), but they were on the lookout for someone to step in and lead that ministry regularly. Now remember...I had already declared that Worship Leader was NOT what God called me to do.

I was wrong, apparently. God plugged Jen and me in at that place and has had us there serving week in and week out for over a year now. The team has grown to include a full band and several rotating singers and our congregation seems to be very pleased. Now...I don't have much musical training. I can read music a bit, understand harmony a little...that kind of thing. So, what did I do with this lack of training? I started a choir I don't know how to direct.

Tomorrow, our Peachcrest Christian Church adult choir has it's debut with a mini-musical for Christmas during the Worship service. I'm very proud of this group. These men and women have given up a good deal of time on Sunday afternoons for several weeks to muddle through with a choir director who doesn't know how to direct a choir. They're doing so well and I'm so very thankful for them.

What they don't know is that they have been pulled in to what the Dream Giver is doing with my dream. Only because God said so would I have taken this on. So far out of my comfort zone is this Choir thing that it has to be God directing it. The members of our PCC choir are being used by God as part of the way he's using me and causing my meager little talent to be multiplied and poured out. It's a very humbling thing to see...and more so to be a part of.

Perhaps I'll share this with the Choir tomorrow. Perhaps they should know they are a blessing...and that God is using them as a part of the dream God is fulfilling...not for me, but through me for His Glory and for His people's sake.

May God be praised and His will be done.

Thank you to: Jen, Patti, Scott, Tim, Donna, Adam, Jeff S, Debbie, Jeff W, Ed, Russ, David, Phyllis, Cash, Kristy, Paulina, Brandon. You are all a blessing to me and obedient servants to the Most High God.