Confession: I just spent twenty minutes on YouTube attempting to catch a glimpse of what is taking place on Glee.
Is that a total waste of time and precious Internet connection; yes.
Does it make me happy?
Yes and no.
Yes, because is satiates the addiction for a bit longer until I get back inside the US where Hulu will work again.
No, because it reminds me of what I am missing. I mean a whole episode dedicated to Whitney Houston. Why? Why do that to me when I am not in the country? Don’t you know that I too want to Dance with Somebody!?!
Sigh, thankfully our ministry this week is also offering me a bit of a Glee fix.
Fusion is what Sam and I have equated to Czech Glee. In short, it is an after school program focused on providing high school student the opportunity to channel their inner rock star…. you know, the alter ego you slip into in the shower or your car.
The groups are held at and sponsored by local churches who invite students in to learn to play drums, acoustic/electric guitar, keys (aka: piano) and sing in a choir. So far this week I’ve tapped my foot along to the likes of Guns n’ Roses, Bon Jovi, Evanescence and others that I know that I know that I can’t remember. Needless to say, it has been great fun.
Milan Szturc, our fearless and gracious host, is the best Mr. Schuester out there. He manages his Fusion group, of nearing 40 and growing, with grace, joy and clear direction. And, if that weren’t enough, he has a HUGE heart for youth that have never heard about Christ.
He made it easy to get up in front of class after class for the 7 minutes we were allotted to speak, play the Fusion promo video and handout flyers. Whirlwind mornings and drum beat healthy evenings could be wearing if you didn’t keep your sights set on the cause…bringing youth to a place where they can hear about and meet with their loving Creator.
Potentially one of the more stretching things for me this week was not resisting the urge to go running when a Czech teacher mistakenly barked at me to sit down and shut up while he reprimanding a classroom of students (gotta love the ever present youthful glow I can’t seem to shed). Rather, it was being the one to present a devotion at Fusion this week.
The stretch was not in the actual practice of public speaking, though I still get nervous, but in deviating from pre-established content and speaking from a more personal side. My faith, my thoughts on faith, and what God is teaching me. This is devotion content and this is the kind of content that I would much rather wrestle through with a small group than stand up and pretend I am any sort of authority on. Alas, I offered and my team pounced on my moment of irrational enthusiasm; shoot.
The outcome? I have NO idea. None. Other than, “thank you for sharing” I have received no feedback. And that’s okay and probably better for me. It requires me to fight off the immediate lie that the absence of praise means I fell flat on my face because the truth is I didn’t. For me it was a victory. A victory because I held fast to the fleeting idea of a topic for the devotion that I heard in my head when the offer to share was made – to me that is me listening to the Spirit. I committed the time to pray over the idea, prepare it, and present it. And, I have victory even now, as I continue to choose to trust that if even just one sentence resonated in even just one heart is was worth it.
What is more, I was able to share twice: Fusion on Wednesday and Fusion at a different location on Thursday. By God’s grace at both locations they had 3 -5 new faces and those 3 – 5 new faces got to hear some youthful looking American stumble over herself in effort to make the point that there is a song in each of our hearts and that song is Jesus.
Less ten minutes of content and with no need for translation, I’ll go so far as to share with all of you my challenge. We all love music, the true international language, but do we dare listen to the song in our heart? The song that, like what we hear externally, can also move us to tears, dare us to run faster or just smile and laugh at life. Your hearts song is a song of profound depth and it is beautiful. It is a song intended for worship. It is a song composed by your Creator, for your Creator. My challenge for you and for me is…
Let your heart sing!
Then listen and learn from what it says.
Psalm 117
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD
