Living the Encore

Growing up there was always someone clapping for me. Supportive parents, enthusiastic grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, family friends; you name it I had a cheering section. I also grew up to a be an athlete. One that did pretty well in high school and college, so I got very use to ribbons and medals. I lived in a small town so I also got use to newspaper articles about my teams and photos of us in the paper.

This was not necessarily a good thing in the long term...as I grew up people stopped handing me medals for the things I did. Of course, I still knew where I stood as professors handed out test grades and comments on my papers. A variety of bosses had progress reports and reviews of my work.

When I began my first call it became clear that I would need to stop relying on others affirmation to know how I had done that Sunday. Some people will say "Good sermon, Pastor." to anything you say and others will never utter a word, even if you are moving their soul like no one ever has before (a girl can dream). No one handed out medals. I had to dig a little deeper to sustain my self esteem and judge the merit of my contribution. Over the years I think I got the hang of it...

then came motherhood. There are no medals here. What exactly would a gold look like? A day with no tears, all smiles and hugs, lots of "yes, mommy, that's a great idea." Children that joyfully realized I have more to do than read, Curious George Lands his Aircraft on Mars and Finds a Pond to Go Fishing In, one more time and that I really can't get the imaginary purple cat named Jude off of the refrigerator...(It just won't move, so stop crying.) But I digress... No one would raise their voices. No one would throw things. The word 'no' would actually never appear.

There aren't medals or ribbons being handed out and no journalists are at my door wondering how I train for such an event. This is the hard reality of life, isn't it? :) Wouldn't it be easier to get up in the morning when there is a chance your performance might be noticed and applauded. (or even some helpful advice on how to do better tomorrow would be nice.)

Enter a little story from Sunday's sermon: A conductor was rehearsing with a lackluster orchestra. After a few attempts at the piece he stopped the group and told them to play it again, only this time play it as if it were an encore performance. Play it as if the crowd was already clapping.

In all honestly, I don't know where our pastor fit this in to his sermon or where he went after he told this story...(we had a pretzel situation going on in our pew) but I realized this was how we are to live. Waking up each day to our own encore performance. As children of God we are reminded that God is already clapping for us, waiting for us to play our hearts out. Trust that we have been claimed as God's own. We are loved. We are forgiven. We are being equipped for our days.

Most days it is hard to praise ourselves. You can't count on family or friends or spouses to hand out awards every day. Toddlers and infants are usually mute on the subject, but God isn't. God has made his preference known and we come out ahead.

Time for me to cook dinner. Big Boy has woken up and is alternately screaming his newest phrases, "I need help Mommy." and "What next Mommy?" Baby girl will need food soon. But today at least I have tried to hear God clapping. You're doing it, Heather Louise...just keep living the encore.