Has Anyone Seen My Comfort Zone? I Seem To Have Left It…

Between you and me….I can’t sing. I mean, technically I can, it’s just that I don’t see any record deals in my future, if you know what I mean. I love being a part of the church choir, and I love helping out in children’s choir, but when you put me in front of my own microphone, I become incredibly self-conscious about my voice. And that says a lot coming from someone who talks almost non-stop at times!

This past spring, I was recruited to help my church’s children’s choir prepare for their spring performance. One of my responsibilities was to help teach the kids choreography (fancy term!) for a couple of the songs. Every day, I spent time training my two left feet to cooperate with my spastic arms so I could learn the songs well enough to instruct the choir. I’d never done anything like this before, and it was SO much fun! Seriously, I enjoyed learning the motions and looked forward to every rehearsal.

Ok. Now fast-forward a little more than a month. June rolls around, and by now, I’ve learned the church is taking a mission trip to Kentucky. During that mission trip, the youth who go will be leading Vacation Bible School for a group of kids who come to the soup kitchen we will be ministering at. I also learn that people are needed to learn the motions to the songs and to teach them to the kids. Remembering how much fun I had back in May, I decide that’s something I want to be a part of.

For the first rehearsal, a friend, my younger sister, and I meet at our youth leader’s house to learn the moves. We discovered we had to simultaneously throw ourselves around and sing. Easier said than done. Remember: I’m not a singer. But, I figured I could handle singing along to the cd, since the cd had voices on it, and there wouldn’t be a microphone within five miles. Needless to say, the trip made a huge impact on my life, and I loved teaching songs to the kids at the ministry sight!

Now fast-forward, like, half of a week. My church will be having VBS towards the end of July, and I already know the songs and motions. That means, somehow, without realizing what’s happening, I find myself volunteering (or volunteered; it’s all a blur at this point) to lead the music time along with the youth group praise band. No sweat, I just did this a couple of weeks ago.

Wait a minute, it’s actually a BIG sweat, and not just because the AC’s not working in the youth room. Turns out, the praise team was playing all of the music, which meant there would be no accompaniment cd, which meant there would be no recorded vocals to cover up my voice, which meant I would have my own little microphone clipped under my neck to pick up everything I sing. Aaaaaaah!!! 

I can assure you, lots and lots of prayer went into this whole VBS thing. Not only did I pray for the event itself (that many kids would come to know Christ), I also prayed that  I could overcome my fears and that the audience would have the self-control to not laugh me off the stage or anything.

After all that time discussing things with the Lord, I was barely nervous the first night of VBS. I mean, my hands were like ice and I was a little more hyper than usual, but nothing major. After the first song of the night, I completely lost my nerves and fully enjoyed helping to lead others in discovering the awesome joy and peace that comes from Christ’s salvation. Ironic that I learned a bit about that in preparing to lead. Actually, it wasn’t irony at all. It was a God thing.

As I posted on Facebook after Thursday night’s closing service:

Who would have thought I’d love every minute of doing something completely out of my comfort zone this week?? I don’t know, but that’s definitely a God thing!

And thus concludes the story of one of the ways in which God proved his power and constant support to me this summer. I was “being a difference” that week in more ways than one.

And for the record, you know the verse that says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13)? Yeah, well, it’s totally true. Even when it comes to getting over one of your biggest sources of self-consciousness. Give it to God and He’ll turn it into something that can be used for His glory! That’s awesome.

– Anna