The Thorn

As my first year of participating in the church choir begins to wind down, I'm starting to look back over everything I've learned (and am still learning) by singing with a group on a regular basis. For example, blending with a group has never come naturally to me. It has taken me many months to learn how to listen to what others are singing as I sing, in order to adjust myself accordingly. I'd been told to do that repeatedly in my high school band classes, so I understood the concept in the abstract. I just never really "got it" until I tried actually working at it.

Another big step for me was learning to read bass clef. As a trumpet player in high school, I had only ever needed to read treble clef. Bass clef was something those "lower instruments" read. When I joined the choir, I was suddenly forced into a situation where I was reading the bass clef line 90% of the time. Yes, even with my high, squeaky voice, I fit best as a tenor. It was trial by fire, and I had to learn fast! Fortunately, knowing enough from my treble clef days, I was able to teach myself rather quickly. Still, there were some embarrassing days when I cheated during times of unison and read the ladies' part, only to keep singing with the ladies when our parts diverged!

As accomplished as our choir has become in the last year, I was very surprised to learn this past week that there are individuals within the choir who cannot read music at all. (This is one of my major faults - I've always assumed that, if something comes easily for me, anybody else should be able to pick it up too.) Now this is a humbling experience, to have been so focused on my own struggles that I completely dismissed the possibility that others close to me might be in a worse situation than I was! Sound familiar? It should; most of us do this every day. I know I still do.

As with most anything in life, there are many practical lessons which cannot be learned from a book; they can only be learned by experience. Most of us (even some expert music readers) cannot get a true feel for what a piece is supposed to sound like until we play or sing it through a few times. Only by singing or playing it through again and again do we begin to understand the emotion of the piece. Once we "get it", we start to make little adjustments here and there to better convey the appropriate emotion, and we start to truly make the music speak. Hmm...Maybe there's an analogy to reading the Bible and witnessing for Christ in there somewhere.

Development of new skills in life comes by doing, not by reading. Granted, if you can read about something first before trying to tackle the practical application, you're probably ahead of the game. However, reading is usually just a place to start. Consider this. There are those among us who cannot read about a subject first, because they don't know how to read. In some ways, they may be ahead of those of us who can read. Having not read about it first, they have far fewer preconceived ideas about what's supposed to happen when the doing starts, so their minds are more open to learn by doing.

Regardless of the method(s) employed, we all learn in different ways. A big lesson I learned this year was that the choir gauges the successful conveying of a piece's message by the number of resounding "amens" given by the congregation. There have been weeks in the past when we could have heard a pin drop after we sang; other weeks, as many as half the congregation gave an "amen".

This week, only one "amen" was heard, but it came from a place close enough to touch my heart. This week's number was The Promise of the Thorn, a piece about Paul's thorn in the flesh, and how God's grace was enough for him, because God's power is made manifest through our own weakness. The message broadened when the lyrics changed from "Paul was given a thorn" to "YOU may be given a thorn." As I mentioned in a previous post, my wife's health changes from one week to the next. Her health has not been good all weekend, yet she still came to church to hear the message. She was the one who said "amen."

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." - 2 Corinthians 2:9-10