Message Balls Blog

I’d followed God into taking singing lessons, but I was getting the idea there was more to it than just learning to sing. As I turned onto Singing Place, I was reminded of why I wanted to follow God. And was given a compelling purpose that motivated me to do something I never imagined I would ever do. It was an unbelievable journey, and through it, I learned what it takes to do the uncomfortable things God leads me to do–what I’ve come to refer to as scary-fun.

I started thinking I could learn to sing faster and surprise my teacher if I knew how to read music. Wrong! After watching a video on the subject, I was overwhelmed at how much there was to learn. I wanted to give up singing altogether, but my husband encouraged me to continue. Then while listening to my recorded lesson, I heard my teacher say that she wasn’t telling me a lot of technical stuff. She didn’t want me to get caught up trying to remember it all and would instead guide me. She also explained different tones come from either my throat, my chest, or my stomach, which I hadn’t understood before. Suddenly all the testing and exercising of those parts of my body made sense. So I decided to trust my teacher and let her guide me to what I’m ready to learn. After all, why would I want to learn on my own anyway when God had given me an excellent voice teacher.

More determined than ever to pay attention and do whatever my teacher told me to do, I prayed for her, and that God would guide her to what He wanted me to learn. I also bumped up my practice time between lessons. Each day I’d listen to my session recordings and do all the exercises and sing the songs. When I didn’t understand something, I’d rewind and listen again or ask about it at my next lesson. My teacher was amazed that I was grasping complex concepts and how quickly I was progressing. She kept saying I was progressing at light speed.

Seeing the difference a few lessons can make, I began getting the impression I was to encourage others who think they can’t sing. I wasn’t sure how that would come about until someone at Bible study asked me if I was going to sing at Sharing Day, which was just a few weeks away. “I’ve only had a couple of lessons, and I couldn’t be ready to sing to anyone by that time,” I told her and tried to put the scary thought out of my mind.

Then I realized I had already been singing to people. I’d been singing to the severely autistic man next door who screams and pounds on the wall so loud that I can hear him through my closed window. I thought if I can hear him, then maybe he can hear me singing. So I started opening my window when I practiced, hoping hearing words to worship songs like Amazing Love and How Great is Our God would give him peace. I started practicing on my walks and would sing to Jim and our dog, Sandy. One day at the cemetery, I sang Amazing Grace to Jim’s mom, knowing it was her favorite song. It was a special moment, and it started me thinking if I was to get up the nerve to sing at Sharing Day, the first verse of Amazing Grace might be the way to go.

To get my teacher’s thoughts on the idea, I emailed her about the impressions I was having. She replied, “Always using your gifts and stepping out in faith is a good idea.” She also suggested I come for a lesson during the week and see where my heart settles afterward. I also shared what I was contemplating with my Bible teacher friend at our breakfast meeting. She has a beautiful singing voice and a lifetime of experience. I trusted her opinion, but I didn’t think she would ask me to sing to her right there in the restaurant! I felt so naked that I covered myself with my arms and said, “no.” When she kept insisting I sing softly so only she could hear me, I finally gave in. She said I had a sweet clear voice and encouraged me to sing at Sharing Day, even wishing she could be there. I didn’t expect that! Taking another step, I asked my singing teacher if she thought I could be ready to sing the first verse of Amazing Grace by Sharing Day. She said the most amazing thing–yes! So the race was on.

I started going weekly for a lesson, focusing on the first verse of Amazing Grace. When I’d sung it correctly a few times while following my teacher and closely matching her sounds, she introduced a new concept–Muscle Memory. She had me sing it on my own, explaining that Muscle Memory would take over, and it would come out as I had practiced it. My teacher was amazed that I was singing A Capella with just a few lessons. It was so encouraging that I started working on the story I would tell before the song.

Our Bible Study that year had been on the prophet Isaiah. I connected with Isaiah when I read that God had him go around preaching in the streets–naked! I’d also been learning about the righteousness of God, trying to grasp and accept that on the cross, Jesus exchanged His righteousness for my unrighteousness. I wasn’t sure how to work that into the story until I’d gotten off-key singing for my teacher for the last time before the big day. My teacher helped fix it, but finding out that Muscle Memory can fail freaked me out. I wanted to back out of the whole thing and probably would have if it wasn’t for the message I had already prepared. Plus, I had invited my Bible teacher friend as my guest so she could see me sing. It all came into play as I walked up to the microphone in front of 190 women and began telling my story.

I began by saying I had related to Isaiah when I read that God had him preach naked and that taking singing lessons had me feeling the same way. I shared about being told by an elementary school teacher that I couldn’t sing. And how the question “Is singing a gift some are born with or can it be learned?” had led me to singing lessons. After briefly telling some of what I’d learned, I planned to sing my song. Not sure how it would turn out, I prayed out loud, “I hope the Holy Spirit comes through for me right now. But whatever happens, I know that Jesus took His clothes off so I can be clothed with His righteousness, and that can never be taken from me. Thank You, Lord.” Then I took a calming breath and out came “Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, Was blind, but now I see.”

When I finished, everyone applauded. My teacher told me she was proud of me, and others were amazed at my courage. It was so scary it was actually fun! The best part was when a young girl from the teen class came up to me and asked, “So it can be learned?” which told me I had accomplished my purpose. And for that, I was grateful.

To be continued . . . see Precious-Way

To see other posts go to messageballs.com

This entry was posted on Friday, January 10th, 2020 at 3:04 pm and is filed under The road to the greater life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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