Getting out of my box

In my family, we talk a lot about getting out of your box. My dad likes routines and we tease him that he lives in a box, or a bubble. He goes to work, church, the gym, and maybe one grocery store. He doesn't like to change things. I, in a different way, am the same. I move a lot and my box looks different, but I like to do what is comfortable. Or rather, I avoid things that are uncomfortable. I am not good at such and such so I won't do it unless I have to. I think many of us have a list of things we don't think we are good at. Maybe it is true, maybe not, but changing that is hard. One of those for me is singing in front of people. I sang duets a lot with a friend in church when we were little, but sometime after that I stopped. I am not the best singer and I am a perfectionist! So if I can't do it perfectly, I won't do it. I think I sang in chapel once leading a song in college and since then nothing. With internet church, they asked Javier to lead worship online today. Now Javier can sing and is a good singer. One of our friends told the other main worship leader that I too can sing. What?! He said I should sing with Javier for church today. Well, we tried, and it sounded bad. I have a low voice for a woman and he has a high voice for a man. We sang the same notes and since I don't know much about singing harmony it sounded not so great. Haha. Thankfully we ditched the idea that I would sing with him. I am definitely not ready to sing in front of the whole church and in a form that people can watch over and over! But even practicing and thinking about that helped stretch my mind a little. I may not have the best voice, but if I can help point others to Christ, am I willing to be stretched in that way? If someone asks us again to lead together, am I willing to try?

Today Javier and I sang a few songs together for our own church service after watching our regular church. And we found some songs we can sing together that don't sound terrible! I would love to one day be able to sing with my husband. We will see. But through all this I am learning that it is okay to try new and scary things, to get out of my box so to speak. It is okay to not be perfect at something. Is there something you are afraid to do because you won't be perfect at it? Give it a try. We sounded pretty bad yesterday when trying to prepare for the worship for church, and that's okay. But today with different songs in a different key we didn't sound so bad. This time of social isolation/quarantine/lockdown/whatever you are in is giving us time to try new things. To reach out and not be afraid. Let me know what you are trying! And maybe one day I will be brave enough to post the videos we recorded of us singing today :)

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