Saturday, August 30, 2008
A Grace-filled day
Hi dear readers!! How is everyone? I do apologize that I've been neglecting my blog for so long. =( I had not been able to seriously ponder and pen down my thoughts for such a long time due to an impossible schedule at work, school, personal ministry and of course, a thousand and one other things I chose to get distracted by. Silly me thought at certain points that I can't simply live so mechanically or efficiently and so gave myself "well-deserved" breaks, only to realize things pile up! *sigh* It's really not easy to live a balanced life on the narrow pathway aye. Where would I be if not for Your grace?
I know I owe you guys a spectacular post on my awesome Vietnam trip but I do apologize, my com died (now resurrected) and then I got busy. I am now waiting for my other traveler to pass me his thumb drive so I can stick it in my com and get the pics rolling! Too many good pics you guys can expect a deluge of posts on the trip! =)
Right, that's that and now, a quick post on what happened today. It's another first, it seems this year's surprises are in an endless supply! I took part in The Genesis Project 08! It's a Christian Songwriting Festival in case you're clueless about it. A total of no less than *counts with the fingers* uncountable figure of songwriters and bands gathered today at Paya Lebar Methodist Church to share God inspired self-penned songs. I was actually given the privilege to perform one of my songs as well! I was really thrilled as expected, but I faced the problem of finding the right people to play in my band; I had not made such connections in the past! Now I had two choices; either scour through my contacts and get a rag-tag band of sorts together or fly solo. One of the quirks of songwriting - as far as my experience tells me - is that one tends to hear the whole arrangement of the song. No band and it'll not do the song-to-be credit. It's like going to a branded shop asking for a paper bag to put your merchandise and they hand you a cheap plastic bag cos they run out of stock. You get e drift. So I had to wreck my brain and consider the schedules of everyone as well as who I would be comfortable to get to play the song. And God's grace would happen in the most unexpected place; my pianist at the workplace, my bassist I found at my Tung Ling friend's gathering, and my drummer, at the very last minute, my dear bro, Royston. I must say that even though I had not the slightest idea who to look for to join me, I considered carefully the options that was impressed upon me. As they all had completely different schedules, the next problem to overcome was how to come together to practice.
All throughout this experience I was just plagued with doubts on whether I had made the right choice of stubbornly wanting to get a band to play. Of course, on the other side I was constantly reminded to trust in God at every moment as He was the one who opened the way. I must say that this was a really faith-stretching exercise, as even up to the very minute before it was our turn to practice, there stood a chance that we would not make our appearance as a quartet (four piece band)! My dear bro was so filled with doubts he almost withdrew from playing the drums, the band layout was totally not conducive for hearing each other which was crucial cos we didn't have enough practice, my pianist was missing cos she had gone off for another appointment, it was Murphy's Law at work viciously!
You know what I learned? I learned that I can't have control of the situation as much as I thought it would be crucial to have. I learned that trust is priceless and it's not something to be taken lightly. If God has put His trust in me and asked me to do something, I can very well sabotage it by doing things my way or by doing other things that are unimportant and lose focus. Or even fail to do the things that seem mundane so it will get out of the way. And the hurt and grief that can result is really heavy even for God! Conversely, even in our doubts and lack of confidence, when we respond with trust even reluctantly, God can work wonders. It's nothing short of amazing grace, and can't be taken for granted.
The conclusion, it was a grace-filled day, it was a beautiful performance, and the four of us enjoyed it tremendously, and the listeners gave a hearty applause for the brave performance of four newbies (at least as far as the learning of the song goes).
Mantou at 8:53 PM