Discomfort
This popped into my head when I woke up this morning. I don't know why, but I usually learn to take such things seriously.
A couple of years ago I was watching an interview with David Crowder. He was talking about one of his most popular songs, "O Praise Him (All this for a King)." After mentioning that the band usually played the song in the key of E-flat, he said with an impish grin "...we do it at the top of their range so they have to sing loud. That's a little trick we do."
That struck me as profound. Imagine intentionally doing something to make people uncomfortable so they perform better. Imagine doing that to ourselves?
Last night I had two conversations with two different friends of mine. One is about to open a church plant in an unfamiliar city. The other is from a small church trying to make a huge impact. I envy both men in a way - both are way out on the front lines, making themselves uncomfortable, making others uncomfortable, but getting results.
This all really dovetails nicely into the sermon I'm preaching this upcoming Palm Sunday. Suffice it to say that Jesus was the master of making people uncomfortable to get them to perform better. We'll talk more about that later.
For now, look around and see if your playing it safe in any areas you should be making yourself uncomfortable. Do you see any? Try raising the key so you have to sing louder.
A couple of years ago I was watching an interview with David Crowder. He was talking about one of his most popular songs, "O Praise Him (All this for a King)." After mentioning that the band usually played the song in the key of E-flat, he said with an impish grin "...we do it at the top of their range so they have to sing loud. That's a little trick we do."
That struck me as profound. Imagine intentionally doing something to make people uncomfortable so they perform better. Imagine doing that to ourselves?
Last night I had two conversations with two different friends of mine. One is about to open a church plant in an unfamiliar city. The other is from a small church trying to make a huge impact. I envy both men in a way - both are way out on the front lines, making themselves uncomfortable, making others uncomfortable, but getting results.
This all really dovetails nicely into the sermon I'm preaching this upcoming Palm Sunday. Suffice it to say that Jesus was the master of making people uncomfortable to get them to perform better. We'll talk more about that later.
For now, look around and see if your playing it safe in any areas you should be making yourself uncomfortable. Do you see any? Try raising the key so you have to sing louder.
Discomfort's not a bad thing, but you'd better have a good reason to bring it instead of just thinking someone looks happy and needs some stirring up.
ReplyDeleteYou already know my thoughts on DC in the area of pitch!