Here We Go!

I am still in denial. I don’t want to accept the fact that August is here again. That means it’s time to start prepping for another semester of teaching. This has gotten to be a normal routine and not too difficult. This year, however, I’m facing a couple of new challenges.  All I know is that both of these should be interesting and provide some entertainment in the months ahead.

The first new challenge comes at Mid-South Community College. This semester I’ll be returning to my teaching of College Survival Skills. If you’ve spoken with me very much about teaching, you know this is a class that I have DESPISED teaching in the past. The major problems were results of course content, technology issues, and lack of clear expectations for the faculty. Since the program has undergone a total transformation at the hands of a gifted faculty director, I have high hopes for the program at the moment. Faculty members will function as advisors and mentors to the students, a fact that I think will result in better dialogue between students and teachers. The only downside for me is that I have been assigned the Saturday morning section of the course. Ugh! I’m trying to keep a positive attitude about this by acknowledging that I’ll be done with my teaching at 10am and have the rest of the weekend to myself. We’ll just have to see if I can maintain the same positive outlook for the next 16 weeks! As this post is being published, I am sitting in the first of several training sessions for the faculty members teaching College Survival. (Just so there’s no misunderstanding, I schedule my posts to publish at 10am on MWF. I’ve not been blogging while in the seminar!)

The more exciting (and frightening) new challenge will take place at Union University. This fall I will teach the third semester of the class piano sequence. There are two sections of the course that I’m scheduled to cover. I’m excited because I’m finally getting to teach a major course in my discipline. I’m frightened nervous because I’ve done a limited amount of class piano teaching in graduate school. I know I’m capable of successfully teaching the course and look forward to the challenge. I just have to get my mind wrapped around what’s ahead and begin planning for a new course.

For those of you doing the math, that’s 2 new courses (3 sections total) added to 3 sections of music appreciation as well as continuing as one of Union’s staff pianists. That’s 6 classes! I’m thrilled! I’m also going to be a very busy man who is going to be burning up the roads between West Memphis and Jackson. For now, I wouldn’t have it any other way either.  I suppose the only thing to say is that it’s almost time for the craziness insanity fun to begin!

The Next Chapter

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably know that I began a three month sabbatical from my church job in April. This time allowed me to address some things that had long been ignored. As the sabbatical began to come to an end, I realized that I needed to make some significant changes in my life. As a result, I notified the church earlier this month that I was resigning from my positions as director of music and children’s ministries.

It certainly wasn’t an easy decision to make. I am passionate about music and children. I have enjoyed fourteen years of service to this local congregation and consider its members to be my friends. What it finally came down to was a certainty in my core that the time had come to leave. I’m not going to publicly explain the reasons behind my decision here; I will simply state emphatically that I have absolutely no doubt that I have made the right decision and am content, happy, and at peace, resting in the favor of my Heavenly Father. It’s a wonderful feeling!

What does the future hold? I’m not entirely sure. That’s a lesson I’m learning right now…..stepping out in faith and trusting God to provide. There are no exciting announcements to make. As of now, I’ll continue teaching students at Mid-South Community College and working as staff pianist at Union University. There are some other teaching and performing opportunities in the works, but it’s a little too early to tell about them since the details are still being finalized. Resigning my position was a huge financial hit, but I finally had to admit to myself that happiness was worth far more than a paycheck.

Change is never easy, but it’s often the very thing necessary to bring about growth. Right now I’m enjoying rediscovering my love for the piano, exploring God’s Word with new eyes, and looking forward to whatever the future may have in store for me. I invite you to follow along as I continue to share the stories of my adventure of simply Livin’ Life……the next chapter.

Choices, Choices

Throughout our lives, we make plans for the future. What do I want to be when I grow up? What school do I want to attend to train for my job? Who will I marry? Where will I live? Should I change careers? How will I care for my aging parents? How do I know I’ve made the right decision?

Inevitably all of these questions include an amount of uncertainty. Planning for the future is planning for the unknown. We don’t know the circumstances that tomorrow will bring. We acknowledge that our choices today will effect the reality of tomorrow and we sometimes find ourselves dreading the future. Even worse, we can sometimes fall into taking no action today in fear of tomorrow’s consequences. Yet we also know that “nothing comes from nothing.” Do nothing today and you are certain to achieve nothing tomorrow.

So today’s question is actually quite simple: How do you go about planning for the future? I certainly contend that prayerful consideration of the future is a first step. There are times when God is silent though. If we’re honest, those situations come along more often than we would like. It’s easy when we are confident of divine direction to make a choice for tomorrow in absolute faith. It’s the choices that we have to made amidst the silence that are so frightening. As humans, we are prone to make mistakes. I have to wonder, when God is silent, is it possible to make an enormous error if neither choice violates God’s law?

When choices appear and I don’t have clear direction, I personally believe that those are decisions that are left to me. Neither is going to be harmful in the grand scheme of things. One may be more profitable than the other though. That’s where I can begin to use logic, insight, advice from others, and discernment to weigh the options and make the best possible decision. I take comfort in knowing that most of these decisions are not irreversible. If I discover I made a poor choice, I can back track and correct my path. I might lose a little time, but I’m able to consider the first decision a learning experience.

What do you think? How do you go about making decisions?

Cleaning Out the Clutter

I suppose it’s time to confess…..I hate cleaning! I don’t like to live in filth either, but I cannot stand cleaning. Although my disorganization takes over in places like my bedroom, my lack of cleaning is most evident in my car — also known as my office on wheels.

Since I spend so much time in my car you would think I would be more determined to keep it clean. The issue is not dealing with the trash….I don’t mind picking up the mess and throwing stuff away. The problem is all of the other stuff:  books, musical scores, CDs, and sundry other things that are important. Once I clean them out of my car, I have to figure out WHERE IN THE WORLD to put them in my parents’ house. Inevitably, I add these items to a growing stack already in the house and have to call that organization. (Contrary to popular opinion, I can generally find whatever I need in these stacks as long as no one decides to begin moving things around in an effort to helpfully “clean up!” I still have nightmares over such a “helpful hand” while writing my dissertation….I’m still trying to get over the stress that was created by lumping all of my papers into a single stack!)

My family is going on vacation in a few days and my car will be making the trip. Since my parents will both be in the car for an extended period of time with me, I knew that some housekeeping was necessary — for their sakes as well as mine! Imagine my surprise when I looked under the passenger’s seat and discovered three books that had been wedged underneath for several months. Now I know why I could never manage to find a clean Tupperware cup in the kitchen too….they were all in my car! The mess really wasn’t that bad (I was shocked!) and I didn’t have to figure out where too many things were going to reside. But it got me to thinking……how often do we avoid cleaning out the clutter of our lives because we don’t want to deal with the mess that will be uncovered?

I’ve been doing a lot of emotional unpacking lately. I’ve been taking the time to deal with issues related to anger, hurt feelings, and sadness by “pulling out the junk” and daring to look at the root. It’s not been a fun process and it’s not been pretty. I’ve discovered some things that I didn’t even realize I was harboring. Honestly, it’s been rather painful. I’ve had to come face to face with betrayal, disappointment, and pain that I had pushed into the deepest corners of my being. Why push all of these emotions down so deep? I didn’t know where to put the feelings without creating a visible mess in my life. Just as I don’t want to deal with figuring out where to put the stuff that emerges from my car when I clean it out, I didn’t want to have to address things in my life that I didn’t have a clear shelf to put them on. When I finally realized that these stuffed emotions were beginning to push other good things out of my life, I knew it was time to clean house.

I can’t tackle everything in a single sweep and expect to succeed. The cleaning is a slow process and it takes a lot of work. So I’m allowing myself to dive into one corner at a time, look at the trash, throw out what’s unneeded, and store what I may need in the future. Then I rest and reflect on the progress I made in that area before moving to the next. Somehow I don’t think the emotional cleaning process ever actually comes to an end, but it gets easier once I begin to maintain areas that have already been cleared of debris. Thankfully, I’m not doing this alone. My loving Heavenly Father enters the darkest corners with me, sits with me through the tears of frustration, shame, and anger, and then helps me find restoration and peace in life as I clear out the clutter that has accumulated.

If It Ain’t Broke…..

Change is sometimes necessary. It breathes new life into old ideas. Change reveals better ways of accomplishing tasks. It stretches our imaginations as well as our perspectives of what is possible. Given all of the positive aspects of change, why do we fight against it so much?

This weekend, I attended the Metropolitan Opera’s HD broadcast of Verdi’s Rigoletto.  This piece holds a special place in my heart as it was one of the earliest operas I explored on my own. I was excited to see a wonderful production by one of the world’s leading opera companies.  Somehow I had missed the  fact that director Michael Mayer had reset the opera in the Las Vegas desert of the 1960s. As I watched, I was enthralled by the lights and the creativity brought to the stage. I had to admit that the shift of era and locale worked, but the simple fact was that I did not like it! I wanted my Verdi in its traditional guise! The Duke of Mantua as a sleazy lounge lizard was simply too much of a stretch for me.

As I contemplated my reaction, I began to question why I embrace change in some areas while fighting against it in others. When it comes to music, I am very much a traditionalist. I welcome change in procedures in the office (especially when useless redundancy is eliminated). I don’t want to do things in the same order in my class or worship service, but I revel in the stability of checklists. I am intrigued by new techniques in the visual arts, but don’t ask me to sit through an avant-garde concert that sounds like rubbish to my ears.

I suppose I’m like most people. There are areas of my life that I want to see remain constant and familiar while I’m open to new ideas in others. I’m challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone and explore the possibilities that change can bring. I’m not going to turn anything completely on its ear right away, but I’m hoping to be more open to it at least. Small steps, after all, lead to major changes and exciting journeys.