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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Organ Woes (the musical kind)

Does anyone else ever get frustrated with their calling in church or is it just me? Ever since I learned to play the organ for my laurel project in high school I feel like I've had some sort of musical calling. There are a couple of distinctions that come to mind--family home evening group leader and family history consultant--but other than those brief blips, it's pretty much just been playing some keyboarded instrument (or no instrument because they didn't have one even though they had called me to play one). Currently, I'm playing the organ for sacrament meeting and have been since last January. It's not a bad calling. I know a lot of the hymns reasonably well and it's kind of fun to sit on the stand and keep up with my musical talents. However, my recent frustrations with it center on the fact that I do not get to pick the music and the person who picks the music chooses not to pick it until the absolute last second. We're talking day before picking here, not several days in advance--I can handle several days in advance. I have to cut her some slack because the bishopric is notorious for picking the topic and assigning speakers the week of the meeting and we typically want the music to match the theme. However, it was made clear on several occasions that the latest I could accept the song list would be by the Wednesday before that week. At any ate, I'm just not sure what to do at this point. I've tried reminding her to pick the songs earlier. I've tried praising her when she remembers to do so. I've even tried mentioning it to the powers at be. But what do I do when I get a list of songs at 4pm on a Saturday and can't play half of them very well? Especially in light of the fact that a member from the 70 will be present at tomorrow's meeting? Should I stumble through it, which will make me look like I'm not caring enough to fulfill my own calling, or should I refuse to play and just pick my own songs? Mind you, the program has most likely been printed at this point. I just don't know. If this was the first time it had happened, I might be a little more understanding. But this is the norm, not the exception and I'm sick of it. What would you do?

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