Sunday a week ago at our church, we had the chance to request favorites from the hymnal for the evening service. We do this from time-to-time, and I enjoy it. The man who directs the singing at church is a great guy, but he's not really a musician--just a simple country guy. He tends to pick from a small portion of the hymnal, missing a lot of the great hymns that I've grown up with.
What he chooses to sing is not bad, but they're kind of light on doctrine and Scripture. So, when we can give requests, I often choose some of the great hymns that he misses. On this particular Sunday, I had some hymns picked because I expected the song leader to be gone, leaving me to fill in. When he showed up and asked for requests, I raised my hand and suggested "Be Thou My Vision."
The pianist began playing the hymn and the congregation joined in. But we didn't even make it through the first line before we crashed and burned.
In the end, I was called up to the pulpit to lead the hymn and Darla was asked to play the piano. Thankfully, we had played such roles in our church in NYC and a few times here in Virginia.
After a little work, we made it through the entire hymn, and I think the rest of the congregation appreciated the words of the hymn. That was my goal when I slipped up my hand to request the hymn.
Posted by JRC at August 23, 2004 01:12 PM | TrackBack