Get Connected!

It was an ordinary Sunday. Mark Martin (former BUMC Associate Pastor) and the praise team were leading The River service. Since I can’t seem to go to the same grocery store two weeks in a row, it should be no surprise that I would drag my husband back and forth on alternating weeks between the BUMC service in the sanctuary and The River service. We both enjoyed experiencing the varied worship styles. On this Sunday, however, something caught my eye. I guess I had noticed it before, but since I wasn’t in this service every week, I really couldn’t remember if this was the case every Sunday or just this Sunday… there was no one playing the keyboard. A little voice in my head asked why, but I quickly told that voice that I really didn’t need to worry about that.
The next week, I told my husband that I wanted to go back to The River service. Since we usually alternated weeks between the two services, he asked why. I told him, “I don’t know why … I just want to go there.” Not quite true, something had been on my mind for the whole week; that little voice that just wouldn’t go away. We attended The River service and once again I saw the keyboard empty. “Don’t be silly,” I told myself. “It’s been twenty years since you have really played at all … what are you thinking?!”
I found my mind drifting during the service (not during the sermon of course!) about how my relationship with my church had changed over the years. I had been very involved when my children were little, but the time drain of work, caring for aging parents, and child responsibilities over the middle school and high school years had drawn me further and further away from a meaningful connection at church. Sometimes I felt like a stranger in my own home on Sundays.
The service drew to a close … “It can’t hurt to ask,” I thought. I approached Mark and asked him if there was no one playing keyboard with the band. “Why,” he asked excitedly, “do you play?” There it was; the question I had both hoped for and dreaded. “Well, yes but it has been a LONG time.” Mark quickly replied that he would call me. Should I say that the phone was ringing as I walked in the door? Well not quite, but let’s just say that the Lord did not give me time to get cold feet. I agreed to show up for River practice that Wednesday night.
When I arrived, I was somewhat embarrassed that I did not even know the names of most of the people I had enjoyed listening to every other Sunday, but they greeted me with open arms. My fears of keyboard inadequacy were heightened when I found out there was no piano music. I would have to figure it out from guitar chords. How ironic that my last two years of piano instruction decades earlier had been just that, but my brain and my fingers struggled with recalling the skills learned. The first several weeks were sheer agony. I finally had to have a conversation with the only one who could help me. “Lord, if you want me to do this, you are going to have to help me.” And then it suddenly clicked. Each week it became easier and morphed from fear to joy. I still have a long way to go, but am excited about the journey!
What is it that the Lord is calling YOU to do? What in your past has prepared you for just this moment in the present? Is there a question that a little voice is asking you? Instead of arguing with that voice or hoping it will go away, what if you answered with a YES! Not a “Yes, I can Lord,” but a “Yes YOU can Lord!”
When you do answer YES, a great reward may be in store. How great that as each of us seeks to draw closer to God’s people at BUMC, we WILL draw nearer to HIM! I pray that you will listen for and find your connection today!

-- Teresa Allen