Week 9- Music in Missions

Journal Entry no. 8 (week 9)
Music/Worship/Missions

This week we really tackled the 'music' aspect of this "Music and Worship DTS".
It was quite fun :) Our speaker was an awesome musician named Stevie Lujan. (Check out his album, "Welcome Home", It's pretty great! http://stevielujan.com)
It was fun to have Stevie as a speaker because he seemed more like a friend, just hanging out and giving us good advice while telling us awesome stories about what God has done in his life.

We talked about all sorts of things relating to music and ministry.
Ways of worship, callings, (more) Lordship, God's resources vs. ours, influence in the music industry, communication, social media/promoting yourself,
we even had a day of songwriting, in which we broke into small groups and took about two hours to write a song. Then we all gathered back in the lecture room and performed our songs as a group. It was fun! It was also interesting to see how everyone's different styles came together to create something unique.

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet on this blog, but since one of the first few weeks here I've felt like God is actually legitimately calling me to be a musician.
 When I first felt Him telling me this, it really threw me for a loop because at that point I was still feeling overwhelmed and inadequate.
I reacted like this: "Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the idea, God"
And I think He kind of smiled at me and said, "You'll see".

Ever since then He's been telling me (quite frequently, I might add) that He wants me to do music.
Let me tell you, I've fought and doubted, and said "nah, not little ol' me" a whole lot.
But I'm pretty sure He's not going to let up.

A few weeks back, my friend Ashlee and I had written a song together about how the enemy tries to come and get us and pull us into the dark. But more importantly, how we have the authority to say "forget you". When we wrote it, we said "we should do this at the next 'Open Mic Night'".
Well guess what? Open Mic Night snuck up on me.
I woke up yesterday morning in an inexcusably grouchy mood. Evidently, my nerves translate into grumpiness. I commend my dear friends for encouraging me, rather than telling me to pack up my mood and hit the road. (I'm half joking.. It wasn't that bad).
But I certainly wasn't excited.
I had a solo part, for cryin' out loud. I was freaked.

But I knew that this would be more than just singing a part in a song... It was actually a kind of warfare. I absolutely had to be obedient to God with this, even though I was ready to head for the hills. I guess that's why I was grumpy, I literally had no other option than to do this thing.
Isn't it appropriate that the song was about spiritual warfare?

So basically, Ashlee and I got up there in front of 40-50 people (even guests from the community!) and we did our thing. My voice wobbled during my part and I forgot to finish a line, but that was a part in the song where Ashlee and I were doing a 'call and response' thing anyway. (Ashlee was the 'victim', and I was the evil thing that was after her. Hehehe!)
So yeah, in all honesty: it could've gone better, but I don't care! I was obedient to God and I took that first step. And you know what? I do believe I'll do it again sometime.
My roommates had warned me that performing is addicting, I think they were right :D

So that's that.
I also spent a few hours on Thursday afternoon in the shade of a giant tree, under the clear blue skies, with big purple mountains standing off in the distance. And I wrote a good start
to a song that I believe is going to be awesome when it's finished! I'm actually psyched to finish it and share it with people.
So I'm starting to get excited about where God is taking me.
Life. What a cool adventure :-)

Chelsea