From Worst to Best

Good evening, children. It's Sunday evening here in McDonough and I am sitting in utter amazement at how this day has gone. I know I promised you a story about the demon dog I was sitting last week, and then after my golf game yesterday with the demon dog's owner, I have material enough for several writings; however, this day has really been quite a day.

I currently play for four services and one rehearsal on Sunday. It's a long hard day, but things always seem to work well and at the end of the day, I am 'glad to have been in the House of the Lord". Today, was not the case. Oh, the minister brought an awesome message, however, from the music standpoint, it was a pretty stinky day. Copies of music was given out this morning to sightread for the service, I did not know that one of the songs was to be without accompaniment, so I just kept playing along at full speed and volume. The words on the big screens rarely seemed to match the words that were supposed to be sung. The Worship Leader took a gem clip from my music and tried to pierce his body with it so that he would be out of the pain. I seemed to drift off during one of the choir numbers and on and on and on it went. It was the longest morning of my life and I only wanted to go home and crawl under the sofa.

After our afternoon orchestra rehearsal, this weary and frustrated musician decided to take the rest of the day off and sulk at home with a big dish of Marble Slab ice cream. So, I ate, sulked and slept off and on for most of the evening.

Then, I heard the familiar instant messenger 'Ding' from the other room. Little did I know that I was about to go from crappy to happy in the ensuing conversation both on instant messenger and then on the telephone.

One of 'my guys' is finally feeling and accepting God's call to the full-time ministry and wanted to talk it out and explore some options that are open to him. I've known for a couple years now that this is what he should be doing, but I guess he'd rather hear it directly from God.....which he has.
After quite a long conversation and time of prayer, I think he is settled in his mind of the direction to begin his walk and service in God's Work. As I hung up just few moments ago, I realized that I had gone from a day of total selfish attitude about how a few songs and computer mixups had gone this morning, to a night of praise and wonder at the work of God in the life of this young man.
I have no worries or concerns about his Call, his abilities or his love for God.

So, my sulking is over, my heart is full and my anticipation for seeing what God is going to do next is at full exciting attention. What did I learn from this? What can you learn? Well, for one thing, God doesn't really get as upset about the small things as we do. He can still use you whether you had a great day or a stinky day ( you may want to read Shannon's latest story over at WindScraps). And, most importantly, if a brother or sister has a concern or need, take the time to listen and get your mind off yourself.

And, once again, as Jeremiah 29:11 says, "God knows the plans He has for us....". We really do not need to worry.

I promise that next up will be the dog story and how I learned from Matt that even though some divots in life are bigger than others, God will always forgive.

So for tonight my friends, this has been the gospel according to Jimmy.