Sweet Hour of Prayer

Tonight I drove to the church to meet two young women so that I could return the wedding decorations that we had rented for Mark and Tina's wedding. I unlocked the side door beside the decorating room and made sure the gazebo that was now in pieces was accessible. I walked around for a bit not wanting to wander too far from the door in case they came. But, soon it was after seven thirty and there was still no sign of them so I wandered into the choir room and noticed the digital piano standing against the wall. I turned it on and ran my fingers randomly over the keys impressed with the sound that resonated against the walls of the empty room. I squinted at the keyboard in the darkening room and found the organ setting. With a light touch to the button the light beside it lit up and I began once again to run my fingers over the keys. Hmmm, that was a great sound.

I quickly ran to the window to check to make sure that the girls had not yet arrived and then hurried back to the piano my fingers itching to play something, anything. But what? I didn't have a song book and my skills are extremely limited. I couldn't seem to remember anything from my piano lessons, but as my fingers moved up and down there was one hymn that began to come alive...ok, only in my head, but it was actually recognizable although a bit rough around the edges as my fingers hit the keys. There it was...Sweet Hour of Prayer!

The more I played the more I began to remember which notes to play and though the sound that echoed in that room was extremely amateurish, hesitant and rough, I loved every minute of it. I forgot about the fact that the girls were coming, I forgot that someone could come walking into the room at any moment, it was just me and that small piano offering this pitiful sound that suddenly had become a private and personal offering to God. It had nothing to do with talent, cause there was none, it had to do with my heart reaching out and desiring to be in tune with God's. The sound rebounded off the walls, but it wasn't the sound that actually 'filled' the room, it was the presence of a real and present God. The tears rolled as the words to the old Hymn ran through my mind and His Spirit took away the day's discouragement and tiredness and it was in that moment that He honored me with His presence and it was through my feeble attempt at music that I worshiped Him. He's not asking for a professional offering, it does not have to be an offering of the best of the best, just an offering of your heart and the best will follow.

"Worship the Lord in the splendor of His Holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth" Psalm 96:9