Small Gifts

Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006 in

Sometimes God gives big gifts. I know folks who have had major medical conditions reversed — both by highly-skilled physicians and through faith.

I consider both sets of results miracles. Don’t get me started…

Then again, sometimes the gifts are smaller. That doesn’t mean they’re less important; it just means they are less spectacular. They aren’t flashy the same way big gifts are.

I’m OK with that. I guess it isnn’t up to me, so it’s good I’m OK with it.

While riding in the car with my family recently, a song piqued my memory. It was an old rocker, full of energy, called Gimme Some Lovin’. It brough back a good memory.

Back a few years ago I played lead guitar in a rock-and-roll band. While the timing wasn’t really right for me emotionally (clinical depression does that to you), there were still good things that came from the experience.

One of the best was some of the songs we played. Gimme Some Lovin’ is just one of those songs. The energy level was way up there and I really got into that. It still makes me smile when I think about it.

The memory fired a string of neurons (still connected after all these years) that roused a memory of when I was a worship-team leader. After Sunday-morning rehearsals, the sanctuary might be pretty quiet until folks started arriving and milling about. Every now and again, I’d still be standing on-stage tweaking the charts a little. I might burst out into the opening guitar work for a variety of songs.

One morning I recall strumming the opening chord (a suspended 4th tonic) to Venus. It’s quite recognizable if you remember music well. A young woman I knew was walking across the back of the sanctuary.

“I know that song!” she called.

I grinned.

So, I was mildly irreverent, musically. I’ve been that way most of my life — mildly irreverent — about most things churchy. (That can keep me writing for awhile…)

Am I still like that? Absolutely.

That incident wasn’t the only one. I was also known to play the hook for Smoke on the Water, the bass line from the Peter Gunn Theme, and others. I think I even did Stairway to Heaven once or twice.

That was a good memory. It made me smile.