Singing in a new year

We made it through our first Sunday in the choir loft... those hearty souls who've stuck with choir, some for as long as 50 years, as well as folks so new their bodies had never seen the inside of a church choir robe.

We're all a bit rusty, my directing included, and we strain and complain about the high notes a little more than usual. It didn't help that our new million-dollar air conditioning system wouldn't cooperate until halfway through the service. So much for the freshly dry-cleaned robes!

I was amazed at the beginning of Wed. night rehearsal last week, when people kept coming and coming up the stairs to the choir loft. We figured if everyone came who had last year, was new this year, or had said they planned to come, we'd have about 25 or 26 people. That's a lot more than last season, to be sure!

I could find scant info on the Net about choir recruiting, and I'm not one of those stand-up-and-holler-from-the-pews kind of announcement-makin' people. So I guess the teasers in the newsletter and bulletins, with some comic relief injected, did the trick. That, and a lot of surrendering to God.

When I started directing less than a year ago, I was worried about how I was going to bring people in and keep them. What I didn't understand is that it has little to do with me. Yes, I do everything I can to be as prepared and as energized and loving as possible, but no amount of effort on my part would matter, if God didn't want our little choir to go on.

It appeared we might cease to be in existence when our last choir director left. The director before her, who held the position for many years, may have stepped in ... but certainly we felt the potential that our little group might fade away.

I didn't want that to happen. Our choir had been a part of my life since I was a teenager. I dearly loved, and still love, the people in it. But I didn't want to force it to happen, in fact, I was quite daunted by the thought of directing. Sure, I'd stood before my bedroom mirror as a preteen with the pretend mike and sang, and occasionally air-directed some classical music. But to be a real choir director?

I left it up to God. I was available, made myself known. Said I'd give it a shot when it finally came down to it.

From the looks of things, we might just overflow the women's sections. The men's section always needs more numbers, but then again, I guess I'll just leave it up to God!