January 26 – “In the nick of time”

You just gotta love it when God shows up in ways you never expect.  I was beginning to wonder what he had in mind Sunday morning.  We were waiting just a little longer than usual for Bryan to get there with the day’s music.  Most of the folks attending were quite gracious about the wait, and seemed to be enjoying talking together and getting to know one another.  When Jennifer got there with the music (on a computer flash drive – Bryan got called into work), I got started right away to transfer the videos and get us going.  Getting them from the flash drive to the hard drive was easy enough, but for some reason I just couldn’t seem to get them set in the worship program we use.  The whole thing would just lock up.  I can guarantee it was operator error.  After a certain point I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  I found out after the fact that the easiest way to deal with the issue would have been to bypass Media Shout completely and just play the videos directly off the hard drive.  Now you tell me.  I admit I was getting pretty worried.  I had no idea of a plan B at the time. 

But God did.  As I frantically tried yet a different way to load the videos, one of our visitors made his way over to the computer.  Not wanting to push his way into the situation, he patiently waited until I took an obvious break.  Then he jumped right in.  “If you need me to play some music for you, I can do that.”  Without hesitation (and maybe a bit too quickly) I replied, “We need you to play some music.”  We compared notes – his tablet and our computer – for songs, and selected several.  He made his way to the keyboard up front, sat down, and proceeded to amaze us all.  He was an amazing pianist.  And he plays by ear, so it really didn’t matter what song we selected, if he had heard it before, he could play it.  And once more, God saved the day.

Chris and I went to lunch with Mr. Piano and his wife (A.K.A. Wes and Karen).  There we found out a lot more about them.  Aside from being about our age and lots of fun to be with, they told us Wes can also play guitar.  He enjoys working with young musicians (like our very own Wyrick family).  And he has been looking for a place where he can use his musical abilities to lead in worship.  Could this possibly be another God thing?  We invited them to our Thursday home group, and they assured us they would be back Sunday.  As we left I told him, I didn’t intend for this lunch to turn into a job interview or anything.”  He retorted, “If it was, I hope it went well.”  Hey, Wes, when God is involved, it always goes well.  Guess I have some praying to do.

Psalms 119:89-90 says, “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.”

Father, thank you for sending Wes to Seaside in the nick of time.  We want your will to be done, and it would sure be great if that matches up with our need for a worship leader.  Amen.