Deer In The Headlights

You know the look--staring wide-eyed, blankly ahead as if transfixed by some unseen force...yeah, that's how I felt yesterday morning. For those of you that weren't in church yesterday, you missed a classic during our opening segment, one that those in attendance won't soon forget.

I chose to open the service with a great, high-energy opening number by Lifehouse, called "Hanging By A Moment." It's a rousing anthem, perfect for starting one of our services.

Chuck Fair started the opening riff right on cue, and one measure in--his instrument cable that patches his guitar amp into the sound system shorts out. All you can hear is this realyl faint, fuzzy, distorted, barely audible riff coming through the house, plus the bass guitar and my vocals.

My immediate thought was to just stop the song, apologize, and figure out what was wrong. However, instinct kicked in and I just picked up the song with my acoustic guitar and kept going. Everything was going just fine...

Until the first chorus (might have been the second--I've repressed so much of what happened already!) when the 3rd-string on my guitar snapped. PING! My guitar is instantly out of tune, and we just have to hold on for dear life and end the song.

There was this long, suspended pause after the last chord of the song, then all hell broke loose on the stage. Three people rushed over to help Chuck, while I grabbed my guitar, a spare set of strings and ran out onto the lobby.

Pastor Pete was a trooper, prolonging the start of the worship with some announcements, some greeting time, etc. By the time I got back on stage, he had pretty much run out of things, and I was still tuning. I have no idea what I was saying--I was just trying to cover the time while I was tuning with something...ANYTHING!

After a few moments, P. Pete came back up, and said to me (and to the whole audience)..."Do you need rescuing?" That broke the tension, and in all honesty, was HIGH-larious given the moment. We finally were able t get tuned, re-patched into the system, and moved on with the service.

Ironically enough, it was a FANTASTIC time of worship--it's like the tension of the morning was able to dissolve (those in the band are still really struggling, though...we don't like those kinds of issues!), and everyone was able to just relax and worship. And we were very receptive to the presence of God, and were able to take our time and let God speak to and minister to us.

When it's all said and done, if that's the outcome, I'll take it anytime.

Interestingly enough, though, I had a number of people come up to me after the service and say nice things about handling the situation well, not panicking, etc. However, the nicest and most meaningful comments that I received was this:

"It's nice to see you're human, too."

Thanks--I'm glad I could be there for you! HA!

Seriously, though, I know what they meant. In pursuing excellence (one of our church's core values), we sometimes can work so hard to be flawless we come off mechanical or simply playing technically well. In this case, this Sunday was anything but. The music and worship was just raw, unpolished, and fully honest and open. And something special happened.

I hope you were there to be a part of it.