BLOG TUESDAY - Honor Your Gifts

BLOG TUESDAY

It’s Tuesday. Blog Tuesday, time I set aside to write down blog ideas to work on and develop.  Today is different because the idea came to me fully formed and I wanted to share it with the group here first.  It feels good to share my thoughts with you.  

Honor Your Gifts

Honor your gifts, which come from God. Period.  

1.     Stop being so humble.    No, really, you’re killing me with this one.  I hear near continual self-deprecating micro remarks.  [“…now you’re so humble about your gifts…you can’t even convince me, you got any…”] These are gifts from God.  Yes, they are amazing.  Put them to use.  Hone them, craft them, and most of all, share your gifts.

2.     There are no part-time saints.  If you think worshiping is something you do on the weekends, let me be clear.  The same eyes on you during worship are the same eyes that are on you after you step off the platform.  The gifts God gives you, talents, circumstances, “chance encounters,” etc., lead us to be salt and light to the world. 

3.     God is glorified. Sometimes you just need to be there.  Yes, we have situations.  Yes, sometimes, we just don’t feel it, and that is the time you need to do it anyway. Even then, God is glorified.  

4. Put in the time.  That is our ministry, we put in the time.  We don’t know what people have been through during a week, and we always have to be musically prepared to meet them where they are.

55.  You better be getting paid. Yes.  Something.  Training (workshops, retreats (no, not ones you’re playing at, but yes you should do those too), cash, gift cards, something.  This is about someone other than you honoring your gifts.  I will fight you on this one because it is so crucial.

66.  Support yourselves. Musicians always have other things going on and you should be attending those things.  If you don’t have anything going on, maybe you should start something! Network!

77.   Support yourselves.  Be kind to one another.  We all have the same goal and if we’re helping each other be and sound our best, we always have to let others know we believe in them.  

88.      Never miss opportunities to play.  Playing with others improves your musicianship. Make the first move and ask if they need _______?  Put yourself out there.

99     Toss, “Well, on the recording…” out of your vocabulary.  Here is the reality:  Why are you spending 75% of song practice on the first seven seconds of a song, and the remainder on the other four minutes?  Practice is like triage, work on the major parts first, then you’ll see how to get it started.  Gifts come with the discernment to figure out how to get into and out of songs.  Don’t be so linear about songs.  The recordings are a starting point, and one of many. Bridges, choruses, etc. are all fair game for ways to get into a song, which is easier when you have the rhythm worked out.

110.  Love each other.