Easter Part 1: Ghost of Easter Past

From: Stock.xchng

Have you ever seen VeggieTales' "An Easter Carol" DVD? It's one of my daughter's favorites and we got it for her last year for Easter. It's about why the hope of Easter is so important through a Charles Dickens' sort of way. Last Easter marks a very pinnacle time in my life, and I feel like the memories of that time are in a way hunting my thoughts.

I've talked about my church duties some, but not is a lot of detail. I run the lights at my church. I've been doing this for almost two years now and I was promoted to Light Director last August. It's not a paid position, but I love it, I absolutely love what I do and making art with light.

Lights at my church, that is the soundboard in front

 Last year about a month before Easter things got a little crazy. The man who taught be how to run the lights, my mentor, got burned out and quit. It was kind of sudden. I was left with two people in training for the lights with upgrades in the works and Easter fast approaching. I was feeling a lot of pressure and stress. I remember staying at the church till 10 pm one night to re-program all three services to incorporate all of our new upgrades. I have to stop right here for a moment and give major thanks and kudos to our worship pastor and crew who stayed up all night for a week putting in all the changes; I really can't complain about my one night. I only mention that night because that is when my insomnia started. I was so nervous and anxious about what all these new changes for the media team meant. I remember getting an email asking me to work all three services, normally I worked Saturday nights. I thought I was being asked to work because everyone else requested the holiday weekend off. Turns out I was asked because at the time I was the most experienced light operator. I know this, because one of the guys in training was working camera that weekend, and the other came up to the media booth to say hello.

My roll changed that weekend. I went to being one of the light operators to the lead light operator to light director, all in 5 month period. Since that time, not only did my title change, but I have written 2 manuals for the board, one map, and worked 8 months non stop till we got a bigger team. I also got to go to the Seeds Conference with the crew and learn how to do my job better.

There is just something about that weekend that has just stuck with me and for some reason those memories keep rising to the surface. Parts of this memory I would like to put behind me and move on. The parts of the stress and feeling like the world was dumped on my shoulders is the part I like to let go of. When I look back at Easter last year, I get a strange feeling. I don't know how to describe it. Our pastor talked, just this last Sunday, about our past and how all the things in our past make up our future and how God can use us no matter what is there. Part 2 of this post will be, hopefully, some lessons on how God is doing just that in my life. God lead me to this position. I wanted a place I could volunteer at my church and God pointed me in this direction. I never knew that I could love my volunteer job as much as I do. Even on my worse days I love being behind that board and worshiping my God. At times it is stressful and crazy and a lot of hard work, but it's all for my God and that is what matters most. Paul the apostle went through all sort of crazy things to spread the work of God. Everything from being in prison, to escaping a city via a basket over a wall, and suffering all sort of hardships. You can find all of this in the books of Acts, Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, Titus and Philemon. I figure if Paul can go through all of his hardships to make a difference for Christ then so can I.

 It just amazes me how different life was a year ago. I am so thankful to God that I am still doing that I am doing and getting the chances to improve my craft for him. This year could be another pinnacle year with my husband's job, God willing. But this year I'll just be acting as producer and making sure everything runs smooth for all of our Easter guests. 

Stay tuned for Part 2.