Leading

A few weeks ago, our choir sang in our service, like they often do.  Being a whole 5’2” tall, they struggle to see me when I conduct, so I stand on a small step stool to help everyone see me.  In their last rehearsal before they sang, I jokingly said, “If I fall, keep singing!” 

That Sunday, as I flipped around from encouraging the congregation to sing, to facing the choir again, I fell off the stool.  The choir didn’t move.  Besides one smirk from the alto section, they continued on in their singing and finished the choir anthem with poise (unlike their director!). 

As I tried to catch myself and get back up and resume my conducting pattern so they would know where to go, I thought, “Yes!  They did it!  A major distraction and they sang on through!”  Because the choir had spent so much time in rehearsal, they knew the music.  The path might not have been clear, but they were able to keep going until I resumed my stance on the stool. 

Spending time in the Word is the same way.  What happens when we can’t see the Lord, or can’t see a clear direction of where we are to go?   We continue on with the Scriptures we know until the Lord makes His way clear to us.  I’m sure Joseph and Mary couldn’t completely understand what God was up to, but they knew enough to keep going and trust God.

“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’ ”  Matthew 1:20