Joy switch
I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting a rehearsal session can be. It’s like therapy for me and I relied on this a lot while I was in school. No matter how tough the week was, I just had to wait for the next rehearsal. Reminds me of a song from way back that said ‘Music makes me high’. Music is powerful in itself but it’s an even greater blessing when the lyrics edify the hearers.
Fast forward to this time in my life when I can go beyond learning other people’s songs to writing mine and working with skilful instrumentalists to build the musical accompaniment. When you have a good team, you don’t have to say too much. It’s like people who understand music think in a certain way… almost like when you begin to tell the story, they can predict where you want to go and they express it with their instruments. Awesome!
Yeah. It doesn’t feel like work when you do what you are designed to do, what you’re naturally graced to do. It comes so easy and I’m tempted to think that the expression of this gift and the nurturing and polishing of it to make it more effective and impactful is connected somehow to the joy switch in our brains. So when we do those things we become super happy.
I’m glad I have this passion, this gift, this grace… and I’m grateful for the Sunday School teachers, choir leaders, friends, mother and mentors who helped me nurture and hone it in one way or the other. You know, I see an interesting orchestration of events that have brought me to where I am today – the hand of God behind the scenes constantly surrounding me with people I can learn from and opportunities to grow and be better. I think I seized almost all the opportunities that came my way, musically speaking, except the ones that may have taken me completely off the main course of my life.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Everyday we have to make them, and not making them is also a decision. You know the saying by Benjamin Franklin, ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’.
Well, I hope you know what flips the joy switch on for you and I hope it’s something that adds value to your life and to the lives of others. Finally, I hope you have found a way to make it a regular event in your life. Remember, ‘a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength’*. You might as well use this as an avenue to keep yourself healthier for longer.
*Proverbs 17:22
Picture credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/420805158909527880/