Two Parts Effort, One Part Faith

I have been pondering lately the intersection of effort and divine intervention.  I have also been doing a lot of singing lately.  For people who know me, they know that this makes me really happy. Last year I joined a Gospel Choir at Dartmouth College.  This is a new kind of singing for me.  Give me a show tune or a camp song and I’m all about it. I have also sung in many other choirs in my life from All State Chorus in high school to church choirs and an incredible 12-year run with my beloved a cappella group, Custom Blend.  In each of these musical adventures, a lot of attention was paid to the details.  Every note was dissected and rehearsed, every dynamic in the music was noted and hopefully observed.  There were particularly challenging songs that we rehearsed for months and months. There is actually great precision in creating music for most singers and certainly most choirs. For most singers, the work is intense and can take months before you are “show ready”.

Gospel music is something quite different.  It is deeply rooted in the African American Church tradition in our country.  The term Gospel means “Good News” and the music is sung to inspire.  This is hand slapping, foot stomping music at it’s best.  With all of my years of experience singing in a variety of groups, I thought that I would be ready and able to step up and learn this new genre of music.  Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the first rehearsal and was told that we wouldn’t be using music.  What the what?  In this choir, we mostly learn by listening.  Occasionally we get the words to a song, but often all we’ve got is our ability to hear the music and feel it. 

Now I am far from a perfectionist but I do like to be prepared and to feel well rehearsed whenever I am performing.  For our recent Gospel Choir concert, that was not how I felt. As we arrived at our last rehearsal, I kept looking around wondering if everyone else had magically learned all of the music for our concert and was going to be ready for prime time.  Some of the choir seemed ready and confident. But for me, learning that many songs, without the visual aid of a piece of music was no small feat.  I should note for the record, that I did my homework.  Man, did I do my homework.  I listened to our recordings over and over and over.  But it was still a push to feel ready to perform, and  to a packed house no less.

How often are you in a situation where you feel like you are about to take a leap of faith?  You’re throwing yourself off the cliff and hoping that the wind picks you up and lands you softly on the ground?  How often do you prepare for something but in the end, hope that some divine energy will appear to assure a successful outcome?  If ever there was divine energy, it was in that auditorium on that night with that spirited group of performers.  We rocked the house and the audience came along for the ride.  It was magic. Our effort, along with a healthy dose of faith lifted us up.

In another musical ensemble that I am singing with, our director talks about getting the songs into our bodies.  I translate this into getting the songs off the page and into our heads and hearts.  At least for this group, we have music to look at.  But the process is really the same.  Do the work, put in the effort and then let inspiration and some kind of energy lift us up and help us share the beautiful music with our fellow singers and our audiences.

A filmmaker friend of mine was getting ready to hit the road for a cross-country shoot this summer.  She had planned meticulously and had the myriad details well planned for the casting, the locations, the housing of the crew etc.  She had made arrangements for childcare for her three boys while she would be away for over a month.  She was excited and very anxious about how the project would unfold.  My one word piece of advice to her was – Trust. 

Trust in what?  Trust in herself and her team?  Trust in the planning and the work that she had already put in?  Maybe it was all of those things.  But I think it was also trust in something bigger.  I think I was telling her that she could jump off the cliff and that something would hold her up and help her float to the ground.  I think I was also telling her that the ride would be thrilling and the views incredible.

It’s almost impossible to put words to it, to define it.  But there is something downright exhilarating when we give ourselves over and trust, when we allow ourselves to have faith.   I would never suggest short-cutting the work or the effort but I am learning more and more that there is energy in the universe that holds us up, that inspires us, that brings us joy. How lucky for me that I am finding places and people with whom to experience that joy and that magic.  How about you?  Can I get an Amen?