Yesterday was our annual Christmas cantata at church. The choir and I had been preparing for the morning’s service for the past couple of months and we’d been praying that the hour would be a meaningful worship experience for everyone involved.
Some songs were more difficult than others. Some motifs were quite challenging. Some beginnings were sloppy. Some endings were rough. The cantata was far from perfect. The choir was a bit worried about their ability to pull it off. And yet…I was never concerned.
As I held the door for my choir to enter the sanctuary yesterday—yes, I called them my choir because I love them—I smiled at them and offered words of encouragement. As one of my men walked by, he said something about hoping that they did okay.
I said, “You will. I have no doubt.”
He said, “You sure do have a lot more faith in us than we do in ourselves.”
“Yes, I do,” I thought. “Yes, yes I do.”
One of my friends once told me that even I knew there wasn’t a God, then I’d believe in God anyway.
Another friend once told me that I wear my heart on my sleeve and everything I own.
Both of those statements are very true.
And my choir member just added another one: I sure do have a lot more faith in people than they do in themselves.
On my tombstone or whatever else is put in place to remember my life, I want some variation of the phrase, “I believe in you,” written near my name—because if nothing else in this life, I believe in the good in people. I don’t live life with blinders. I know that there is a lot of evil in this world and that each of us battles our own demons. And I know that sometimes I struggle to believe in the good of some people. But the deeper the humanity that is seeking to grow, the more beautiful I find the person as he/she is being redeemed…and I am daily being redeemed as well.
So, yes, dear choir, I do probably have more faith in you than you have in yourselves…and the same goes for you, too, dear readers.
And for the record: Just as I predicted, the cantata was great.
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