One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that I’m not perfect. I make mistakes…in fact I make them all the time. Here are a few examples – and these have all happened just in the past two weekends.
I was leading worship for our middle school students, and we were playing with a click. During the last song, which was a slow tune, our students down front decided they wanted to clap. Bless their hearts, they started in a completely random tempo for some reason and were so drastically off-beat that I did the unthinkable – I laughed. Out loud. On the microphone. I got the giggles and couldn’t stop them.
In an effort to save the moment, I made a comment about how much I loved our students’ enthusiasm and energy during worship, so much that it made my heart so happy I couldn’t contain it. It was a close one…because in all my years of ministry I’ve never laughed at my own students – how embarrassing!
I continued to play the song which was supposed to move from an E major chord to a C# minor chord in the chorus, and I completely missed the C# minor and hit – you guessed it – a C major. Take a moment to play that on the keyboard in your office and laugh with me. I missed it by one fret, and I have been playing guitar with my eyes closed for twenty years. And when you make a mistake on an electric guitar it is extremely loud. I smiled and I think I remember looking at the ceiling for a second thinking, “Sweet Jesus, help me!!”
I finished that set and went over to our 3-5th grade service where I lead with tracks and a team of students and leaders. It is all high energy with crazy jumping and dancing. This weekend, there was a huge foam cross on stage, complete with a crown of thorns, leaning up against a very tall prop behind us. Half way through the second song, which included a lot of intense jumping, the cross fell over and the crown of thorns went flying. I was so mortified by the imagery, I laughed and said on my headset mic “it’s probably never a good idea to knock over the cross!” As funny as this was, it wasn’t nearly as funny as what happened the weekend before.
I was leading a song that involves a kick out to the side during the chorus. For some reason this particular morning, my leg didn’t really go out to the side – it kind of rounded out forward a bit. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, had there not been a red tin offering bucket right in front of me. I kicked the offering bucket (no pun intended), launching it about two feet into the air, barely missing the head of one of our precious 3rd grade girls who look terrified.
For some reason we had a ton of change in the offering bucket that day, so it was very loud. The children went scrambling to help pick up the change and put it back in the bucket, while our entire team on stage continued to lead the song while laughing uncontrollably to the point of tears.
And what’s even funnier is that this is the second time I’ve done that, during the same song. That one should come with a warning label.
I’ve learned that if I don’t laugh at myself from time to time, I will buckle under the pressure of unreasonable expectations I’ve put on myself. Just because I am a professional certainly doesn’t mean I don’t ever make mistakes. I’ve learned to roll with the punches, not take some things too seriously, and above all thank God for the extra grace I need to serve Him. And apparently some weekends require more grace than others.
Misty’s Bucket Song: