Thursday 1 May 2014

Rockstar

I was about 24 years old when I got bitten by the Canadian Idol bug. I borrowed a Lifehouse CD from a friend and practiced singing one of the songs over and over in our little basement suite office…must have driven our landlord nuts! I told myself that it was all for God's glory…but when the time came to actually go in to Vancouver for auditions, I backed out…and was glad I did when I watched the season on TV later. It wasn't me, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made the first cut anyway!

I medicated my 'rockstar syndrome' with worship band involvement--leading the church youth, other music teams. I also recorded and mixed my own music. I have always loved the stage as much as I fear it--perhaps because of the attention an introvert sometimes craves? (The same may go for acting on stage.) I struggled in one situation where I felt my gifts were being overlooked in an over-talented church, but that is part of worship team dynamics, which always require a servant heart!

Church in Choma doesn't value six-member worship bands as much as Abbotsford. The higher-end churches have a keyboard and a couple of choirs. Ours has three different dog-eared hymnals and some enthusiastic a cappella singing! There's not too much room for rockstars.

So tonight, here I lounge in my pyjamas, playing soft nylon strings, accompanied by distant crickets and barking dogs, performing for mosquitoes (everyone else is sleeping already). It's a sweet sold-out concert for an audience of One.