The story thus far... (Part III)

So on that Wednesday, Dustin and I made plans to do an audition on the Monday of next week. But I had to come up with a song to sing. Hmmm. So I went through some songs that I liked and ran them by him, which he shot down and in turn gave me some ideas, which I frankly didn't like either. So it was about three days till the audition, and I called him to talk for a second and suddenly came up with the perfect song, "Blessed be Your Name." After all, it is quite appropo to everything that was going on. I asked him, and he said he agreed it would be a good choice, so now we were all set. Monday came around and I started off on my journey up to Athens on my own. I left a little early since the meeting was at 5:30, and I didn't want to get stuck in traffic. So after driving, for a while, I finally found the church the team was at...an hour early. So now what? I decided on rolling over the McDonald's right next door and proceeded to sit there for the next hour, switching from my Bible, to music, to reading the lyrics of the song, and repeating. But eventually, the clock hit 5:20, so I decided to go ahead and go for it. After I had gotten out of my car, I walked into the worship building and...there was no one there. Hmm ok, well maybe they were somewhere else. So after I walked down the hall for a couple of steps, I turned the right and walked into a room where the entire Life Action Staff was having dinner. Well, here we go. As I walked over, Dustin (Thank the Lord) saw me and called out my name. He walked over, shook my hand, and said he wasn't quite done with dinner yet, but asked if he could introduce me to someone before he went back to eat. Sure why not, sounds cool. So without further adieu, he spun me around and said in a loud voice "Hey everyone, this is Josh, he's trying out for a singing part in the auditorium in about 15 minutes so everyone say hey!" Cue heart attack number two. Well, after that little stress attack, we went into the auditorium, and get ready to sing the song. Dustin got one of the other guitar players to play for me, and after a little bit of tuning, off we went. I had disciplined myself so that when I was ready to sing, I would try my very hardest to block everything out of my mind except for me and God. After all, isn't that the only one we should be singing for anyways? Well, the song came to a close and I felt very confident. And then, I hear the words "Ok, good practice. Alright, you can turn the recording on now." Well...that stinks. So I got to do it a SECOND time. And once again, God was there, so encouragement times two! Well, my audition was over...well in a perfect world it would have been. "Ok Josh, let's try some vocal exercises." Some vocal what? For those who are reading this who may not know my background history in singing, let me summarize: I have none. I sing completely by ear, so the concept of a "vocal exercise" is a tad unfamiliar to me. No matter, I was there and really had no place to go, so I prayed asking God to somehow allow me to know how to do these exercises to my best, and then whatever happened after would happen. After another grueling 20 minutes of vocal exercises, I came away, actually having sounded not terrible! Well, God's good, because I know it wasn't me. For the rest of the night, I hung out with the team, and really enjoyed myself (thank goodness the audition was at the beginning of the night0 and as I sat in the car before driving off, I remember thinking "I can do this for a year." There was no feedback at all, except for "We will see what God has." Well, fast forward to two days after, and on a Wednesday morning in a study room at my school, I received a phone call from Mrs. Thompson (remember the secretary?) saying that she was so excited to tell me that I had been accepted to the Life Action Blue Team!

 And so, all my hard work (and God's work in me) was brought to fruition. But this is just the beginning, and I hope you all can join me on this incredible journey!

Proverbs 3:5-6