Blessing in Sacrifice

Eternal Revenue gave a program this evening. Sort of. It wasn't the normal, sing-in-a-church-service type of program. This was a much more laid-back program. In fact, I don't even consider it a program.

We sang at the Burke County Jail.

For you who are not familiar, a few from our church and a few from Hephzibah church go in every Tuesday evening for church services. But Sunday evening, we decided that we would go in this evening and sing for them. We sang several songs, then I talked for about ten minutes. We then sang a couple more songs, then had prayer, then we had to leave. It was really challenging for me to experience that. I had been in there before, but this was a little different. Not to toot our own horn or anything, but quartets (or any singing groups) don't normally go sing in jails. There's no sound system (except for the brick walls), there's no recognition from the community or certain churches, and there's no offering taken up for the singers. And isn't that what we normally do?

Seriously, folks. Too often we are eager to sing when we are getting our name out to other groups/churches to hopefully get an invitation to sing there. We like to sing with sound systems, record ourselves to hear how we were, so that we can improve our sound. Not much you can do to judge your sound in a block jail room. And of course, when the money rolls in, that's always an appreciated gesture. ("Oh, you didn't have to do that. We just enjoy singing!!" (smiling face.) "Oh, but we wanted to. We enjoyed listening to your singing. Please come back." (Probably the greatest lie of the century.) "Hey guys, check this out!! What a loot! We'll be back here again!" (Gloat, gloat) ) That is something that you don't get when you sing at the jail. It's just some generous, heartfelt clapping from the guys. A spiritual boost to your soul. And although I can't see into the spirit world, I suppose it makes God smile. And that's reward enough for me.

Because we always need to remember what our purpose for singing is. It's for God's glory.

And that's sometimes hard to remember.