May 8 Day 8
When my alarm went off this morning, I totally did not want to get up. I even bumped back the time half an hour in hopes that I would feel rested, but it just wasn’t happening. I knew if I didn’t get up that I would sleep a few hours. I did not want to take another chance of forgetting I was supposed to be at chapel again! (That’s what happened back on Day 1.)
I actually enjoy the chapel service at United Theological Seminary quite a bit, regardless if I play there or not. Every time is a different experience with different teaching specialties and different people leading worship. The worship director is a blast to work with. When I don’t play, I’m not responsible for anything, which is a load off for me. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy it, but when I’m behind the keyboard, there’s always a part of my mind that reminds me “Yeah… Don’t get too wrapped up or you’ll mess up everyone else’s worship experience.”
Look… I didn’t say it was right. I said that is how I feel.
The service was great. It was a blended traditional service, which of course takes me back to serving at the Catholic church. TM reached DEEP in the hymnal and one of the selections immediately brought to mind an arrangement by my good friend Roderick Wilson. (I used to play keyboards in his gospel jazz band.) So… Yes, Rod, I ripped off your chords… for the glory of God!
Yeah… Stealing for Jesus.
Don’t give me that look. You all knew I needed prayer and you decided to read this anyway.
The “down side” to going to chapel is that it throws my day out of whack. Chapel is mid-day, which is usually the same 2-3 hour block I use to get Mom up and out of the house. My brothers didn’t get her out, but they did make sure she got lunch. So, instead of taking her out when I got home – which is what I would usually do – I took a nap. Grossly needed.
Mosaic Church had our class tonight on discovering spiritual gifts. I picked up my friends from El Salvador and took them to our sister church Christ Church. Last week, I got them there just after dinner was called, which means the line was around the hall. This time I got them there half an hour early. It was good in terms of getting a few things done, but it was about twenty minute before people showed up! Sorry pal! I’ll work on my timing some more…
One thing about the dynamics of our group is that about half the table are predominantly Spanish speakers who attend our ESL class Tuesday nights. I speak some Spanish, but I’m not fluent. WS – who I met at the chapel service – joined our table a couple of months ago and I’d say her Spanish is about the same level or a little better than mine. It’s great if we have someone with translation level skills, but between the two of us and our friends who are learning English, we can muddle enough to have a meaningful discussion. Tonight we had BM with us (from El Salvador), which is awesome because she was able to bridge some of the gap. The new guy to the table does not speak Spanish, but we all worked to include him on what everyone was saying. He said that he was impressed by the way we all try to help each other. It’s not easy, but we all try and we enjoy each other’s company.
I totally need to practice. No one tell my high school Spanish teacher. Or my mother… who was also a high school Spanish teacher. Or my sister… who is fluent. Or especially my brother-in-law, who is also fluent and would be appalled at both my poor vocabulary and my mangling of verb tenses.
Think I’m probably going to hit the hay early tonight. Got a list of things I need to catch up on, but I’m totally not setting the alarm this time.
Wish you all the best,
TKP
5/8/2019