Instruments

On Friday, we went on our first field trip of the year to Memorial Park down by the river.  This park has been around since 1924, visited by many people over the years.  Lucky for us, it has a humongous field where we played kickball and capture the flag, both two:fiftytwo favorites.  It was unseasonably warm (I know, right?) but it was still a great time.  Afterwards, we drove back to the church where 10 medium pizzas and two gallons of Hawaiian Punch (brought by a student's mom) were waiting for us and any family and friends that wanted to join us.  It was an attempt to get to know families a little better and build better relationships with families we already knew.  There were 10 relatives and friends that came by to enjoy the pizza and drinks.

As we enter November, I'm excited to tell you that on Mondays at the after school program, we will be starting our unit about music.  This is something that I hope that will solidify in the programming in years to come as a regular time.  In case I haven't told you before, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in the spring of 2010 with a degree in Viola-Performance.  Since school, I've gotten to play in the Dubuque Symphony as well as the LaCrosse Symphony (in Wisconsin).  A year after graduating, I continued to live in Madison to keep playing with the string quartet I was in.  String quartets are one of my favorite things to play because four instruments playing the same piece together, each with their own notes, their own roles, is so powerful when you are the one contributing to the music.  Sure, violists rarely get the attention; it's always those violinists who are heard the most.  But each instrument's voice is vital in the whole piece of music.  There are times to be a rhythmic support, there are times to be heard and times to let others be heard.  Performing with others was always enjoyable, I'd get goosebumps all the time listening to the sounds of the brass section shake the floor under my feet, the beautiful melodies in the violins and cellos.  While playing, I'd be like, "It's not about me and how I play, it's about playing my part with excellence by supporting, being heard, and letting others be heard."  There's no musical notation for selfishness and pride written into the music, just the expectation that each instrument will do their duty.

I don't plan on turning these kids from Brentwood into brilliant musicians who will one day seek out a career as a classically trained musician; however, I do hope that in the next few months that the volume of the  rhythms and melodies that God composed in them while they were in their mothers' womb would be turned on and turned up.  I'm excited to teach something dear to my heart.  Music is a powerful thing, once described as a way to experience God and communicate with him.  It changes lives and how people understand the world.  I've often compared a symphony orchestra with the body of Christ.  Some instruments get all the attention, some are hidden from the audience.  Some play high notes, some play low notes.  Does the tuba say, "Because I am not a violin and play such sweet high melodies, I am not part of the orchestra"?  Or the piccolo say, "Because I am not a french horn and play such powerful deep horn sounds, I am not part of the orchestra"?

When I'm around these kids every day after school, I see the ways they are similar, but the ways in which they are different are so clear, fearfully and wonderfully made.  As I think about the ways God could possibly use them in five, ten years in the specific ways that he made them, I just pray that these instruments get played to make a beautiful sound to our Lord.  Some of them are beaten up, their backgrounds not that impressive, not shiny, but they were made to make music.  Shouldn't they be able to perform and give back to their creator?  My life, your life all has a purpose.  I hope and pray for you that you would look at others and see that they have worth.  Every person that walks on the street, stands on the corner (especially in Brentwood), hides in the shadows, sleeps under the overpass was made and God loves them so so much.  Do we look at people like this as failures?  Dismiss them as hopeless and go on with our day?  How much would one kind word to these people change their day?

Please pray that as I teach music the next few months, that God would equip me with not just lessons about quarter notes and chords and dynamics but that He would help me every day to recognize that each of these kids sin but were made with purpose...to glorify and praise His name.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he has prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

We are his instruments.  How great a feeling it is to be played and utilized for His purposes!

Arrived at the park