Playing Our Parts

Playing various instruments growing up I learned the importance of each instrument playing their specific part and at the volume written in the music. In ministry we see this same thing. As members of an orchestra or band, we each have our parts that we play to produce a most amazing song. Sometimes you have a part that may seem boring or unimportant because when you look at the music it is just rhythm or resting for a lot of the song while others have some amazing sounding runs or melody lines that you really want to play.  Others may be thinking this run is insane I will never be able to hit all of these notes (I know I have been here) why can’t we just have a rest or play some rhythm?  The melody was written by the composer with a specific instrument in mind because it sounds a certain way. For example, while a trumpet and a tuba are both brass instruments, they have a very different sound and the tuba often has rhythm parts because they are the bass. But, we need the bass to be consistent or the song will not sound right. The bass helps ground everyone in the song, it is like a glue to keep everyone together.  I played Euphonium in college (its ok if you don’t know what that is) and I was the only one that played. In concert band we had some amazing songs to play, however, the euphonium often had the melody line. It would sound so pretty when I would practice but since I was so afraid of playing it wrong I would play soooooo quiet that no one could hear me. This did not help much because the melody needed to be heard. The director would have her husband who also played in the concert band (it was college students and community members) play my part with me. He played the french horn which is such an unbelievable instrument and could play my part perfectly but you know what, it did not sound quite the same.  It worked but if I had been confident in my playing abilities and played loud enough and confident enough then it would have been better, it would have sounded more like it was supposed to.

How often do we find ourselves in ministry roles that we are uniquely qualified and designed for and feel unable to do the part? How often do we need to grab someone from another section to support us and in turn change the way the song sounds? We all have our specific parts that we need to play for the grand song to sound correct. When we feel like our part is not important we need to look at the bigger picture and see what we are doing and how it impacts the other parts around us. Even in music there is often a 1st, 2nd and sometimes 3rd part in the same instrument because then you have harmony and it all works magically together.  So the question is are you playing your part?