Ephesians 5:19-20
“Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Here’s the understatement of the day: Katherine and Nicole are better musicians than I am. I’m not a musician by trade or training, but even with my limited knowledge, I know a crescendo when I hear one. A crescendo is generally defined as gradually increasing in force, volume, or loudness—it’s that moment in the music when the volume and emotion of the piece reach a fever pitch. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture has one of the more famous crescendos (click here for a sample).
However, crescendos don’t just appear out of the blue. It’s typically a building process; it’s a process that takes time. For a song to increase in force, volume, or loudness, music must already be playing in the first place…
I started thinking today about crescendos in our lives and in the life of our church. For our children’s and youth ministry, Camp HoriSon and Caswell represent two “crescendo” moments; moments that we as a church build all year to reach. We then watch and celebrate as God works through them. We enjoy and love to experience the highs, those mountain-top experiences. Sometimes it feels like what the ancient Celts said were “thin moments,” a moment where the space between heaven and earth was so thin that, “men and angels could hear each other sing.”
Over the past month, our church has baptized 14 (14!!!!!) children and youth; 7 of those were first-time decisions to follow Jesus. In the coming months, we will baptize another in our sanctuary. Folks, that’s 8 new Christians, along with 7 others who rededicated their lives, that we can continue to love and disciple. What a crescendo moment…
In this moment of celebration, let us also remember that throughout the year, our church makes a lot of “music.” There are teams of volunteers from the nursery to the youth small group leaders and all ages in between. There are those who constantly pray for PSBC and all its ministries. There are those who give generously to support our church and to pay off our Cornerstone building where so many of these ministries take place. The reality is that most of life, most of ministry, is not in those mountain-top experiences. Kids can’t always be at camp, just like as adults, we can’t always be on vacation watching the perfect sunset after just the right meal.
But those crescendo moments happen, because we’ve been making music all year long. Let’s keep singing from our hearts and watch what God can do.
Prayer: God, thank you for how you use the crescendos and the “normal” rhythms of our lives. May we learn from you in every part of every season. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.