The second day of pre-tour rehearsal is in the books. The weather in the morning was cool and refreshing and a brisk walk to the rehearsal spot got me energized and ready for a full day of singing. I was also on the verge of being late so that helped wake me up as well.
We started the day with Julian leading us in a brief look at Colossians 3:16 which states, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace your hearts to the Lord.” We were reminded that singing is service in that we serve the audiences (and each other) by directing each one’s attention to Christ and even instructing each other in the word of Christ. In our service to each other, our ultimate goal is to praise and glorify God. The weather was invigorating, but a brief look at the word of God did far more for us than the weather ever could! We followed the devotional time with a time of prayer and then commenced to singing.
Things that didn’t go so well yesterday went well today and things that went well yesterday didn’t go so well today. But such is the nature of rehearsals. Lest I come across as negative, I will assure you that overall much progress was made and we are feeling much more ready for tour than we were the day before. Much more time today was spent “off book” and looking at each other. It is amazing how the songs began to become much more meaningful as we attempt to portray the message to the others in the group. It is one thing to know the message of the song yourself. It is another thing to send that message to others. It seems like that exercise cements the message so much better even in your own mind.
Towards the end of the day, we went through our standing arrangements and did a complete run-through of our program, although there was much more talking and laughing than will be present during our actual programs. At least I sincerely hope so! We all rejoiced with exceeding great joy when we discovered that we will be in the same arrangement for most of the program and will have to do much less remembering where we need to go than we had to in previous years.
If I may speak for the whole group, we are very much anticipating leaving for tour and sharing these songs with others. There is most definitely a sense of excitement as we look forward to loading up the bus and heading for northern Indiana.
We pray that our singing would be a service to those we sing for. We pray that the work of Christ, His atoning death and victorious resurrection, would be the central theme of our praise. We pray that God would be glorified and that we would simply be a channel through which He works. We pray that many will see our praise, and fear and trust in the Lord. We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will be magnified!
– Written by Daniel Layman