I Played ln The Band
I Sowed A Seed
I played in the band, I sang in the choir
I wrote a few songs that gave a few people hope
Every once in awhile I started a fire.
I know -0 about music. I’m just an ordinary man and I don’t particularly excel in anything. I am not a scholar and I have no desire to be. I would like to try to sing but I don’t think it would end well. Each of us have gifts that we excel at, and which we enjoy doing. Many of us get into a job which we really don’t like but still we do our best. I feel that when we find something we enjoy doing we generally can excel in that field.
Most of us are ordinary people and we have never been famous for anything. We started out with high hopes, thinking we would conquer the world, but we settled for mediocracy. I particularly like gardening, and I probably should have been a farmer, but I wish l was better at it. At this point in life I would like to quit gardening but it is something I am drawn to. I was involved in a garden club, and it seems there is a certain percentage of people that are attracted to it.
I have often wandered what percentage of the population are good at music, or perhaps good at art. I think perhaps these two go together because we have had band directors that were also artists. I know for a fact that artistic people see colors we ordinary people don’t see. I struggle to match my clothes.
God has told us Christians to be a witness, to sow a seed, or provide a spark. Sometimes the seed grows into a mighty oak, and sometimes it doesn’t grow at all. Most often we don’t see the outcome, and sometimes another person reaps the harvest that we have sown. Sometimes the spark goes out and sometimes it becomes a roaring fire.
Yesterday I learned of the Jim Johnson hymns on Facebook. I am amazed at the clarity of his voice and how he can sing these songs acapella. He tells under what circumstances each hymn was written, and it is an interesting program. I am told that at least a couple other Missionary Church ministers were good singers. I didn’t go to their Church, but after I racked my brain, I know Jim. He has a good name.
I sing in the band, was written by Larry Gatlin, Bill Gaither, and Henry Slaughter in 2014. I have talked before about listening to music on your pocket phone, and yesterday I learned of a new artist. Larry Norman, “Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?” This was also sung by Janis Joplin, before she met a tragic end. She was probably the top star at Woodstock. The end
—James Neuhouser
