how to play the cello

The other day I was hired to play violin in a music video for Nicole C Mullen.  However, as I talked with the producer, I discovered that there was a disconnect as they thought that the 4 bars of cello solo at the beginning of the song were a violin and hadn't hired a cello.  What to do?  Enter my friend Dabney's cello and my acting skills.

One of my biggest flaws is that I don't like to fail and I don't like to not be good at what I do, so to walk into a video shoot knowing that I was about to be called upon to do something I wasn't really good at, was a difficult thing for me.  

My cello playing sounded like a dying cat....a large dying cat.  Fortunately, the recording of the song was blaring loud enough that no one heard how awful I was, and the director said I "looked fabulous." which made me feel better.  I accomplished what they needed for the shoot.  However, it was about the 14th time through the song (we must have run it about 30 times.  We played it for 3 hours straight.  literally.) that the Lord spoke into my heart.  Even my best playing that I think sounds amazing is still a "filthy rag" to Him.  The music He makes is finer than anything I could imagine and therefore, my good playing doesn't really sound any better in His ears than my skwaking  on the cello did to me.  But yet He thinks it's beautiful because I play it for Him.  Just like a Daddy loves the mass of cotton balls and glue and crayons and glitter on craft paper that his toddler brings home from daycare.  He tells her it's beautiful and fusses over her and the picture and hangs it on the fridge.  

I felt my entire body relax and I decided that I was going to turn my cello honking over to the Lord.  "Daddy?  Listen to this!  I'm playing it for you!"  I smiled and praised imperfectly as He calls us to do, and I noticed by the end of the shoot, I'd even learned the entire song....He had allowed me to conquer that foreign territory.....because I'd decided to make it worship.  Our Daddy is sweet and wonderful.