a tale of two worship sets

Yesterday was a funny contrast in two similar situations. I had a worship practice in the morning for my church, and a practice/performance at a meeting in a different church in the evening. The morning was greased wheels, a piece of cake, like falling off a log, sweeet, no problemo. The evening....was not. Being that I cannot ever really keep my mouth shut and do stuff because I figure no one else will, or else they do not understand how organized I am and what I am thinking (imagine that!), I do land myself in trouble when I encounter new situations, and situation number 2 was one of those.

The morning left me laughing and blessed in that I'm glad to be understood, respected, liked and appreciated, and in that environment, I was. I suppose given the fact that it's been almost ten years in the making, faithfully working and proving myself, the fruit is evident. The evening left me drained, defending myself (at least to myself), frustrated at other's people's lack of understanding at how fortunate they were to have someone as experienced as myself, marveling at the slipshod way things can be handled, or so I perceived it-we have work to do here. I certainly hope it does not take another ten years.

In the end I realize the blessing I have enjoyed being in the familiar, and I understand the challenge I have in the unfamiliar. I see my leadership skills being sharpened and developed. I see other people learning to see me in that role. I have to take the strengths of the first situation and apply them to the second, and hang tough, picking my battles. The result of working through what I know and what I don't fruited a good time of worship in the evening, finally. Yes, I did want to hit a few people, but only temporarily. It's back to Sunday to tank up, and be ready for the next Friday night.