The intent behind the words...

Ok...in my last blog, I'd alluded to my performance back in San Francisco. Well, here's the follow-up that I promised...

The performance itself went relatively well. At least to me. "Center of My Joy" and "His Strength is Perfect" were the songs that were speaking to me that day. (Ok, Center of My Joy was speaking to my mother, but since I'm an extension of her...) I closed my eyes and just played. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I tend to add a few riffs and runs while I play...tapping into that jazz essence that seems to have ingrained itself into my heart and soul. And I have no problem with that. But I also try to tone it down a little for church. But I'm still going to freestyle a little bit. I mean, if I was a singer, I would do that too. But I digress.

Anyways...after church was over, I had a number of people come through and tell me that I did a good job, and I appreciated that. But there was one person that...well, here's a paraphrase of the interaction that we had.

"You played well, but you sounded like you were in a nightclub."

"Thank you."

"You like sounding like you're in a nightclub? I wouldn't think that would be something you would be thankful for."

*pause...the thoughts are starting to run around all helter-skelter*

"Well, I'm thanking you for the compliment anyways."

"Okay then." And they walked off.

NOW...it took me a minute to realize that they were criticizing me. And I admit, I was a little hurt at first. But then I thought about it some more and here are some of the things I came up with.

• I'm not upset that I sounded nightclub-ish because I've been working on that for years. So, I guess some of the work is paying off. And if you thought this was too much, what if I hadn't tried to tone it down?
• Why does the church have to be so close-minded about what music is "appropriate" for church? Who says what's appropriate and what's not?
• Well, the majority of people that spoke to me liked it, and they know me and my heart, so I'm not going to sweat the critique.
• If people that have gifts that don't fit the traditional church mentality, should they be discouraged from using their God given talents? That is, if the church doesn't encourage them and accept them, won't that just push them further into the secular arena and possibly result in the loss of a soul?

So...in the end, I could have really had my feelings hurt by this, but I realized that it was just something that I needed to think through a bit more in order to find a lesson. Whether the lesson I take from it is "right" or not is a matter for each person to think through on their own. Me...I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, and looking for venues where I can continue to share my gifts and talents. I can't make everybody happy. But that doesn't matter. The things that do matter...am I happy with what I've done? Did I give glory to God in all my efforts? If I can answer "yes" to those questions, then I'm good. ;)

Anyways...on to the next thing. And as always, until next time...peace be the journey...