Zune

I had a dream that I searched for a new mp3 player, and subsequently purchased it, this morning. When I woke up, remembering that I didn't have to babysit today, I searched for one, then drove to the store and bought it. Due to the space limitations of my other player, I needed one with more space. I bought a Zune (16 GB). It's actually a very nice little piece of technology. I put every bit of music on my computer on it as soon as I could, too, as well as bought a subscription to the service that Microsoft offers with it, enabling me to download as many songs as I want.

Before I drove to the store to get the mp3 player, though, I noticed a package sitting on my front porch, from the Christian Book Store. It was the songbook I had ordered nearly two months ago! Hillsong - This is Our God. It has sixteen great songs on it, with a few being older hymns redone, even. Whenever I listen to anything Hillsong related, I want to learn to play it, as well as lead it one day, successfully. Whenever I think of leading a song, though, I always think of what I could do better than I did last time I lead, or than the person leading on the song I'm listening to.

I know for a fact that I can't become a super worship leader overnight. There's no possible way I'll learn everything I need in a few weeks, so I've simply started looking at what I've done every time I've led and worked off of that, to improve for the next week. One thing I've also loved, at least about the worship band in the youth group, is that we all seem to improve, every week. Bryce, for example, will start adding new things to the drum patterns he thinks up. Corrie seems to be more willing to sing and play. Brad has more and more fun and learns his instruments at the same time. The vocalists seem to be getting more comfortable...

.. I'm thankful for each and every one of them.

Never, however, would I have thought what happened on Wednesday would actually be a real situation. I had been losing my voice over the course of the week, and Wednesday night it went from bearable to horrible in about ten minutes (very strange, I know). I had to ask Elissa or Corrie to lead, and, based on the track record, Elissa would have had to lead, but she didn't want to. I heard quite a few excuses from her as to why, most having to do with a hurt leg. Without warning, Corrie stepped up and lead each song. Not only did she sing the songs and play, but she actually led the songs! Even though I've told her, I don't think she realizes just how proud of her I am, not only for leading when I needed her to, but for stepping out of her comfort zone without hesitation.

I'm still surprised, right now, even.

This weekend, we're going to visit my sister, nephew, and nieces, in Kansas. We'll be leaving Sunday morning and coming home Monday evening.

Here's a sample of the Hillsong - This is Our God CD:

- Mike