Take Me Out to the Blog-Game!

I finally decided to give blogging a try. I have wanted to start a blog for a while but I think I was just waiting to see if I could come up with some fabulous "reason" for creating it.  My thought process went something like this . . .

I could do a blog about crafting. I love to stamp and make cards and quilt. My latest is furniture painting, but most of what I know about all of those things I got from someone else's blog. I would have a blog full of links to other blogs. I don't think that's what I am going for.

Strike 1!

I could write a blog about teaching. That's it!! I have a thousand funny teacher stories and lots of memories from my years in the music classroom. Plus, I could give expert teaching advice to all you other educators out there. And . . . PLEASE! Somebody stop me! Don't get me wrong, I love my job, I just don't want to spend my down time writing about it and frankly, I don't think there are that many people who want to read about it either!

Strike 2!

Okay, okay. WHAT am I going to write this blog about? What am I good at? What am I passionate about? What can I write more than one post about? And what am I going to call this blog anyway?

Should the name have to do with music? Crafts? Hobbies? Family? Faith?

I felt like I was standing at home plate and strike 3 was headed my way. Forget it! Obviously this blogging stuff isn't for me.

THEN . . . it hit me! (The idea, not the ball!) I spend so much of my professional life in preparation for something. Whether it's a lesson plan, a program, a concert, a choir musical, or any number of things, I feel like I am so often in "rehearsal mode" and when I reach the end of one thing I'm already preparing for the next.

So how does this affect my life on a more personal level? What does it mean to have "no time to rehearse?" And why am I going to write a blog about it?

All that time I spend in preparation and rehearsal gives me the opportunity to fix and adjust things about a performance before it is presented to an audience. I get to work out all of the little problems so that when it is performed it is as close to perfect as it can be. 

When I paralleled this with how I live my life I was struck with the fact that the only audience that should truly matter to me is an audience of One. The One who created me, loves me, and saved me. The One who gave me the gifts, talents and abilities that I am blessed with. The One who knows my thoughts and my heart better than I do.

Herein lies the idea that when I am learning to live my life for Jesus, my Savior, my audience of One, there is no time to rehearse and work out all the imperfections. There are no dress rehearsals or script changes. And the best part is . . . I'm NOT the director. I'm not in charge and I don't have to write the script, stage the choreography, create the costumes and pick out the songs. Nor do I have to make it perfect. I just have to follow the direction given by the Lord and know that "he who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

That's it! No Time to Rehearse. That's what I want to blog about. I want to chronicle how I am learning to live each day, through my job, my hobbies, my relationships and life in general for an audience of One. I did say LEARNING! This is by no means a how-to manual on living a Christ-centered life. It's a process and there will be lots of mishaps along the way, but I am determined to do my best.

Baseball is a team sport and just like the players need each other in the game, we need one another as we go through life. So, I don't know if this blog will be a home run, but I pray that it is at least a base hit to help make part of your journey a little easier.