Something Beautiful
As I type this, I am sitting at the sound/ production table at my Church. I just finished running sound for a wedding.
I go to a very large Church, and as a result, people often want to use our building for different events like weddings, funerals, graduations, etc. Many times, the people using the building don't go to church here, but they love the building so much that they want to use it for their event, which usually requires someone to run the sound system for them. This is where I come in. The church will pay somebody like me to come up here to the building, run sound for the rehearsal, then run sound for the wedding.
Now, in my experience, I've run sound for lots of incredibly organized weddings, where the wedding director had everything timed down to the second. And if you miss your cue, LOOK OUT! You'll be in trouble because you dropped the ball.
There have also been weddings that were the complete opposite: Bridesmaids and groomsmen were late to the rehearsal AND the wedding, nobody had any music at the rehearsal, nothing was timed AT ALL, things like that. Those are the ones that are the hardest for the sound man, because he's just there to do a job. It sure is hard to do a job when nobody can tell you exactly what that job is!
Today's wedding was the latter.
Last night, most of the wedding party (the ones that actually showed up) arrived at the rehearsal 45 minutes to an hour late. The bride still had not chosen what songs she wanted during the ceremony and where they would be placed. The wedding director had never met with the bride to find out what she wanted. I had been told that there would be one soloist and there turned out to be three, one of whom would not be at the rehearsal. And all this was just the rehearsal!
Fortunately, we managed to get several of these problems worked out last night, but there was a whole new set of problems waiting for me when I arrived earlier today. The soloists who were supposed to meet me here an hour before the wedding were late, one of them (the girl who wasn't here last night) arriving about 10 minutes before she was supposed to sing.
Once the wedding began (surprisingly on time!), all of the aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents of the couple were supposed to be escorted in and seated during one song. The wedding director wasn't paying attention and no one entered during the song. This presented a problem for me because the next music I was supposed to play was the music for the wedding party's entrance. So, we ended up with almost 10 minutes of silence while I tried to run downstairs to the wedding director and find out what happened.
Well, we finally got back on track and the rest of the wedding went off without a hitch. Well, except for the "hitch" that was supposed to take place, of course.
Now I'm not telling you all of this to complain, even though it might sound like that. There is a great point to this story that I would l like to share with you:
At the moment the Bride entered the room, it was completely magical. She looked beautiful and at that moment, everything was absolutely perfect!
You know, every wedding I've ever been involved with has been like that. You could have a million things go wrong, but at the moment that the Bride walks down the aisle, those million things don't matter anymore. Why is that?
Maybe it's because so many of us remember our own weddings and the feelings that went along with them. You know, I'm sure that there are things that went wrong at my wedding, but I can't for the life of me remember them. That's because all of my focus that day was on my bride.
Did you know that God is the same way with us?
It's true. When we are in his presence, all of his focus is on us, because he loves us so much. When we are fellowshipping with him, all of the things that have gone wrong in our lives really don't matter anymore.
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called Children of God! And that is what we are!" --1 John 3:1a
How great, indeed! He loves us so much that he has adopted us as His children! How cool is that?
He loves us enough that he changes us into the same thing that he changed this "accident-prone" wedding today:
Something Beautiful.
Now I'm sitting here typing this and the wedding party has just left the room. The bride and the groom are in here alone with the photographer. While he changes the film in his camera, they are talking and they can't take their eyes off each other.
Yeah...I'd say everything is just perfect.
May God Bless You Today!
--Eric G.
I go to a very large Church, and as a result, people often want to use our building for different events like weddings, funerals, graduations, etc. Many times, the people using the building don't go to church here, but they love the building so much that they want to use it for their event, which usually requires someone to run the sound system for them. This is where I come in. The church will pay somebody like me to come up here to the building, run sound for the rehearsal, then run sound for the wedding.
Now, in my experience, I've run sound for lots of incredibly organized weddings, where the wedding director had everything timed down to the second. And if you miss your cue, LOOK OUT! You'll be in trouble because you dropped the ball.
There have also been weddings that were the complete opposite: Bridesmaids and groomsmen were late to the rehearsal AND the wedding, nobody had any music at the rehearsal, nothing was timed AT ALL, things like that. Those are the ones that are the hardest for the sound man, because he's just there to do a job. It sure is hard to do a job when nobody can tell you exactly what that job is!
Today's wedding was the latter.
Last night, most of the wedding party (the ones that actually showed up) arrived at the rehearsal 45 minutes to an hour late. The bride still had not chosen what songs she wanted during the ceremony and where they would be placed. The wedding director had never met with the bride to find out what she wanted. I had been told that there would be one soloist and there turned out to be three, one of whom would not be at the rehearsal. And all this was just the rehearsal!
Fortunately, we managed to get several of these problems worked out last night, but there was a whole new set of problems waiting for me when I arrived earlier today. The soloists who were supposed to meet me here an hour before the wedding were late, one of them (the girl who wasn't here last night) arriving about 10 minutes before she was supposed to sing.
Once the wedding began (surprisingly on time!), all of the aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents of the couple were supposed to be escorted in and seated during one song. The wedding director wasn't paying attention and no one entered during the song. This presented a problem for me because the next music I was supposed to play was the music for the wedding party's entrance. So, we ended up with almost 10 minutes of silence while I tried to run downstairs to the wedding director and find out what happened.
Well, we finally got back on track and the rest of the wedding went off without a hitch. Well, except for the "hitch" that was supposed to take place, of course.
Now I'm not telling you all of this to complain, even though it might sound like that. There is a great point to this story that I would l like to share with you:
At the moment the Bride entered the room, it was completely magical. She looked beautiful and at that moment, everything was absolutely perfect!
You know, every wedding I've ever been involved with has been like that. You could have a million things go wrong, but at the moment that the Bride walks down the aisle, those million things don't matter anymore. Why is that?
Maybe it's because so many of us remember our own weddings and the feelings that went along with them. You know, I'm sure that there are things that went wrong at my wedding, but I can't for the life of me remember them. That's because all of my focus that day was on my bride.
Did you know that God is the same way with us?
It's true. When we are in his presence, all of his focus is on us, because he loves us so much. When we are fellowshipping with him, all of the things that have gone wrong in our lives really don't matter anymore.
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called Children of God! And that is what we are!" --1 John 3:1a
How great, indeed! He loves us so much that he has adopted us as His children! How cool is that?
He loves us enough that he changes us into the same thing that he changed this "accident-prone" wedding today:
Something Beautiful.
Now I'm sitting here typing this and the wedding party has just left the room. The bride and the groom are in here alone with the photographer. While he changes the film in his camera, they are talking and they can't take their eyes off each other.
Yeah...I'd say everything is just perfect.
May God Bless You Today!
--Eric G.
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