Lest any of us complain about the hard work that's required of a rock band, I've been trying to mentally collect all that which God has done for us to make this band thing easy.
Truly, the only obstacle we face and the only challenge we must overcome is our own commitment to individual practice. Absolutely everything else God has already taken care of.
How fortunate we are, for most newly formed bands find themselves in need of many things, all at once and usually for an extended time. Either they're searching for a bass guitarist, or they haven't got effects pedals, or maybe it is that they haven't got a space for band practice. But we were spared, and we faced none of these obstacles.
Incredibly, God blessed us with everything that we need. Most importantly, we have each other -- and there are six of us! Amazingly, we found our shared interest and brought ourselves together for the same mission in just ONE week. It was a random week in March.
So here's what God did for us:
1. He provided us with each other in the course of just one week.
2. He provided me with a garage to give us space in which to practice. Without this garage, there would be no place for us to play.
3. He equipped my garage with more lighting than most people would ever have in their garage. Most garages are dimly lit, if at all. But God illuminated my garage with the knowledge that it would be used for more than just the storage of a car!
4. He equipped my garage with way more outlets than anyone would ever need in a garage. Yes, He must have known that we would have tons of amps, monitors, and sound boards to plug in!
5. He made my garage larger than most, meaning that we can fit more in it!
6. He put my garage next to a large field with an unoccupied house in the middle, meaning that we can get as loud as we want!
7. He provided John with an abundance of professional-grade sound equipment, which the Holy Spirit helped John acquire systematically over the course of the last 5 years.
8. He orchestrated it so that I would already have in my possession the extra amp that Greg would need for his guitar.
9. Last week, when John mentioned that he wished that I could have a monitor for my vocals, God had John encounter a coworker (just a few days later) who spontaneously offered a monitor to him for FREE, not even knowing John needed such a thing. Who but God could arrange for that?
10. God provided us with enough sound equipment to be able to record our first demo CD, when the time is right.
11. God provided us last week with a guest song writer, my seminarian friend name James. He's already written a Flyleaf-like song for us!
12. God converted our first die-hard fan into a contributing member of our band (who is now our keyboardist Chris).
13. God provided us with connections to two and possibly three venues where we can play our first show, when we're ready.
14. When He saw that my wireless Internet connection could not reach the garage where we needed it for band practice, He asked me to sacrifice my connection to the Internet for two weeks (by suddenly shutting my whole system down) and then--while troubleshooting with my Internet service provider--He orchestrated the happenings to cause them to send to me a new wireless modem with a 100-foot reach, thus providing us with the wireless connection we needed in the garage!
15. He provided me with an incredible voice teacher whose studio is just 5 minutes from my house, and her schedule of availability works perfectly with mine for Saturday mornings! It's close to band practice but does not conflict with it!
I'm sure there's a million other things He did (and will do for us soon) to make our band ministry possible. Therefore, we have no right to complain when we acknolwedge that the only "hard work" we are called to is practice itself! :)
