Where has the time gone? It’s been a while since I’ve posted. My first semester as a Sophomore in college is coming to a close and Christmas is almost here. The days are simply flying by–I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since we got home from NYC already. After reading Robert and Kelsey’s posts about our trip and deciding that they described our experiences with such humility, I decided to approach the last couple of weeks from a different angle.
At our last Sunday night rehearsal before our NYC weekend at Riker’s and Essex County Juvenile Detention Center, Kelly posed the group with a challenge. The challenge was not concerning our choreography or singing skills. It was, instead, to evaluate our genuineness in how we presented our message to those in our audiences. It seemed like a simple challenge–to make everything about Him and nothing about us. To sing every song with the appropriate emotion emulating from our bodies, whether it be empathy, compassion, love or praise. To do this, Kelly played a number of the songs that are in our current presentation. She was not concerned with our dancing. She was not concerned with our voice parts. She was concerned with our connection to each song–that we would be able to identify with the lyrics of the song and why it was put into our production and what message we are sending to our audiences when we perform it. We were looking for our genuineness in the songs we sang every week. Would we find it?
To say that this exercise was helpful would be an understatement. Being a dancer, I am typically consumed with the beat of a song when I hear it, running through the dance moves in my head as the music plays to be absolutely certain I “got it.” This night was a rare exception. There was more to be concerned with than the beat. My heart was not beating for the music, it was beating for a greater purpose. I was focused on the big picture. I was focused on my Father, and I wanted nothing more than to please Him with worship and thankfulness and praise. So, that is just what I did. And at our next show, I remembered the pleasure that I had gotten from praising Him, and I was overcome with a desire to do it again. As the group performed the song called “You Are the Truth (Red Sam)” by Flyleaf, I raised my hands and closed my eyes and worshiped. So much, in fact, that I completely missed several of the dance steps written into the choreography. But you know what? I didn’t care. Not one bit. Because I was genuinely moved by the presence of God in that room through song.
I sincerely hope that every member of Shining Light has the opportunity to experience the love of Christ overfilled so much that their sincerity overflows and touches each and every member in our audiences this year. It is an opportunity we won’t soon forget.
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