Taking Dictation

So here's my praise report of the week. I'm helping with a service tonight at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown L.A. Our friends the Fousha's go once a quarter and conduct a service, and asked us to fill out their worship band, so I play keyboards and sing, my son Ian plays guitar, my daughter Emily sings and my husband plays guitar and sings. They also asked me to do two special songs.

As of Monday, I still couldn't decide which two of my songs to do. I couldn't even remember whether I had sung "Eyes of Compassion" last time - I knew it was a toss up between that and "No Perfect Road." Fortunately Emily reminded me that a woman wearing combat pants had stalked out of the room when I got to the line "fragile and crying," last time, so at least I knew I had sung Eyes of Compassion and chose No Perfect Road for this time. But the other song was still a mystery. I picked one, changed my mind, picked another, changed my mind, and by Tuesday night I was getting nervous...

So I flipped through my book of songs, asking the Lord to tell me what He wanted me to sing. I stopped at a song I wrote a year ago that I never liked. Recently I looked it over and decided to throw half of it out, keeping the only parts I still liked, so all that was left was two verses. That's the song the Lord told me to play. "Okay, Lord," I said. "You are aware that there are only two verses and it's Tuesday night?" (I'm so helpful that way, pointing out the obvious to the Creator of the Universe).

In faith, I started practicing my two measly verses. All of a sudden I found myself singing a very simple chorus to go with them. "Okay, this might work, " I thought. Then later that night, after everyone was in bed and I couldn't play my keyboard, the rest of the chorus started flooding into my mind. I had to sit at my desk and try to write the melody down in music notation (something that makes me shudder almost as much as crafts and science experiments). The next morning my efforts paid off, though, because I was able to remember it.

Then later that day, I sat down to practice and wrote the bridge.

Songs just don't usually come that easily; I'm even remembering the melody instantly when I make small changes to it, which simply NEVER happens. It's a case of Holy Spirit intervention because, honestly, I'm not THAT good a musician. :-) It's more like God is writing the song and I'm just taking dictation.

So I'm expecting great things tonight. This audience is one of my favorites - these ladies are so precious. It's not like singing for a quiet church crowd where everyone's on their best behavior, so you get instant feedback. If they like you, they let you know right away. If they don't like you... well, they stalk out of the room. Last time I went I left feeling like I gave so little and received so much.