Heart for God

By Jack Chui

Last week I was invited by my friend and 'irregular' STAY member (though regular parishioner) to help her sing at mass last Sunday morning. It was the 5th Sunday of the month and so sometimes there is no scheduled music group to serve at mass. My friend loves our parish a lot and even though she's not part of any choir or music group, she felt called to do something for the church, even though she didn't have to. St. Augustine's can still provide a mass without music though it would be strange because it is known for its charismatic style music.

I'm no stranger to volunteering and I have volunteered on several occasions to help Jean out with her music team during Sunday mass. I thought about the offer for a little bit and although I would lean towards just attending mass, I didn't have any good reasons not to help my friend out in this ambitious task - so I said yes.

My friend is by no means a trained musician or singer. She's observed the music groups over many years as she always sits at the front of the church nearest to wear the musicians play but for her to lead a music group/ministry would just require sheer guts, which comes from loving God and His church. Through God's providence, she managed to gather a pianist and some other singers and (by the high music standards of our church) managed to bumble through the mass without destroying it (ok that was a bit harsh and overly dramatic). Like me, my friend knew it was not about achieving success, but about being faithful.

The crowd knew that we were a makeshift group of stragglers brought together at the last minute to provide some praise and worship in mass so we knew that expectations were not very high. We only practised the songs for half an hour before the mass after struggling to get all the sophisticated audio equipment working. To me, my friend pulled off something she had never done before with a bunch of mostly strangers and little music leadership experience if at all. She herself was by no means the best placed to lead the music group but what mattered more was that she had the biggest heart to serve God.

My friend really humbles me. Perhaps my biggest weakness as a child of God is my pride. I pride myself of my capabilities to do many things around the church and even to step up and do things which I haven't done before. I only realise recently after reading reflections that my pride extends spiritually, where I think I am better than others because I know God, I go to church, I'm active in ministry, I lead ministries etc. But God took someone who I think is 'lesser' than me to do something which I'm not courageous enough to do - and she did this by her own initiative rather than being called like I usually am to serve.

I am really glad to have taken part in the music group, because I love to see God doing great things in the littlest of people. In fact, He does this all the time with everyone that serves at church (and also in doing His work outside) - its just that I don't notice it and think its because they are good at what they do. I am also more grateful for my church as small as it is, for the opportunity it provides to be able to do such things like bring together a new music group 3 days before we're due to play.

My friend, whom I have not revealed the name of (and if you wish to know her, you will when you see her at mass) is more ambitious now and would like our makeshift music group to continue and fill in for masses when the regular music teams are not scheduled to serve. Her idea is to keep going by gathering to practice once a month (could call it a jam session) and play on call when needed. There are not many opportunities coming up so these 'spontaneous' callings are few and far between. The next most obvious are around January when most of the music teams take a break.

I see this as an opportunity for STAY to start getting involved in music - to provide an avenue which we haven't really had before for some of us to express our gift in music. If you are interested, feel free to let me know. Even if you don't have any gift in music, what matters more as my friend showed me is not your talent, skill or capability but your heart for God.