Today my university had a thing they call the "Trine University Scholarship Gala". It's a thing where rich alumi come, pay a lot for food, wine, and auction items, and at the end, we get a lot of scholarship money (a lot = average of $600,000). I'm in Jazz Band, and we were performing at it today.
As we were playing through the music, it's not uncommon for me to miss a few notes. However, even on bad days, I normally don't play nearly as badly as I did tonight. I couldn't figure out why; unsure, I kept asking for the Holy Spirit's intercession in the situation, kept asking that He would come down & make my playing sound better, but I kept screwing up really badly.
About halfway through, I realized that I missed something crucial: I was asking for the Holy Spirit's intercession, which is always good. But I was asking intercession for something I shouldn't have been keeping for myself! I didn't give it to God, I was holding onto it and asking for tweaking! As soon as I asked God to take the whole performance, giving it to Him like I should've from the start, I played much better, and the whole band sounded better.
Lord, help us to remember that nothing truly belongs to us, and that these things can only happen at their peak when we let go & let you take charge. Amen.
As we were playing through the music, it's not uncommon for me to miss a few notes. However, even on bad days, I normally don't play nearly as badly as I did tonight. I couldn't figure out why; unsure, I kept asking for the Holy Spirit's intercession in the situation, kept asking that He would come down & make my playing sound better, but I kept screwing up really badly.
About halfway through, I realized that I missed something crucial: I was asking for the Holy Spirit's intercession, which is always good. But I was asking intercession for something I shouldn't have been keeping for myself! I didn't give it to God, I was holding onto it and asking for tweaking! As soon as I asked God to take the whole performance, giving it to Him like I should've from the start, I played much better, and the whole band sounded better.
Lord, help us to remember that nothing truly belongs to us, and that these things can only happen at their peak when we let go & let you take charge. Amen.
