Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: STAND UP FOR JESUS (don't write about the song) (04/09/15)
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TITLE: Singing in a Sniffer's Den | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynn Kowal
04/15/15 -
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I instantly bonded with the character who was the opera singer because she left fame and fortune after asking the question, “What would Jesus do?” to go out into the town square and sing for the masses.
I wanted to do the same. Not so much the singing part, because I had already been doing that since I was three, but the “outside into the town square” part, because singing in an uncontrolled way like that had always intimated me.
I had never been able to sing simply for the love of it. I had performed often and been criticized a few times, so I always had to make sure everything was carefully orchestrated.
Whenever I practiced, I made sure that I was alone, and I would close the windows and turn down the background music so that nobody else would hear me. I didn’t like the idea of being “exposed”, and I always needed to be perfectly prepared.
As the years went by and I continued to practice and perform, I struggled with this need for control until one day about 10 years ago when my husband and I were visiting some of our parishioners on a near-by Canadian Indian reservation.
We had stopped in at a few of the homes, and were warmly welcomed. As we walked a bit further, my husband pointed to the sniffers’ den. This is usually an abandoned home or a burned out shack where people go to suck on rags soaked in lacquer, paint thinner, and sometimes even gasoline. They become high from the fumes, and the situation can become dangerous and unpredictable.
“Let’s go in there. I’ll say a few words, and you sing” my husband nudged. “Jesus will protect us”.
His words gripped me with a paralyzing fear and rooted me to the spot. But as I prayed for courage, and for God’s love towards these men, I planted one foot in front of the other, and, ignoring my wildly pounding heart, entered in.
The panic in these men’s eyes was palpable as they saw us come through the door. Some of them even got up and hurried out, and it reminded me of rats scurrying away.
The acrid smell of the lacquer was overpowering and it made my eyes water. I coughed as I tried to take in a full breath. But slowly and surely, I smiled at each person, as I plugged in the ghetto blaster.
As soon as the background strains of “People need the Lord” began to fill the tiny shack, the men started to cry. As I straightened up, an incredible peace filled the room, and it almost seemed as though we were no longer in a dangerous place, but instead we were just singing inside my home. It was a holy moment.
Since that day, I have been able to sing more casually about Jesus in public. Before I begin, I pray for Him to show me His love for the people who might hear me as I sing in the women’s washrooms or the groceries. And because our store-front church ministry caters to alcoholics and drug addicts, they walk right into our church drunk or sober. Their cursing at us one moment turns to praises unto God the next, and it is like being in the town square.
I know I will have to stand before Jesus one day, so I am determined to stand up for Him now.
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I can't figure out how "sniffers" don't die from sucking on lacquer and paint? I've never heard of this type of "addiction" before.
The MC's singing was a defining moment in the story, well done.
The story had an authentic tone.
God bless~