Tales and Fables of Cables

This week is an important one for me. It's my first week as a fully salaried 'Music Director' at Kerith Community Church. It's incredible to think that two years have already passed since I first joined the staff as a volunteer - time really does fly when you're having fun! My role has some fantastic privileges - I get to play in a band, write songs, travel to some amazing places and meet some phenomenal people, all the while learning from the exceptional leaders that I work with. However, not many people see the mundane trivialities that have to take place in my job from week to week. If I were to figure out some statistics for the last 2 years, it might look a little like this:

131 chord charts

341 trips to the photocopier

844 hours of planning meetings

145 hours setting up rehearsal spaces

6034 cables coiled and boxed up

Ok, I admit. I made those numbers up. I fact, they probably aren't even remotely accurate. You get the idea though. The last detail is by far the most frustrating. If I never had to coil another cable in my life, I would certainly not complain. The musicians and technicians reading this will no doubt identify with the infuriating task of coiling cables perfectly neatly, resting them beautifully where they belong and returning a week later to find them all in a hugely tangled mess that takes an unnecessarily long time to sort. I don't know what I dislike the most - the fact that I have to tidy these cables week in, week out, or the fact that this whole thing is a perfect analogy for my life.

The thing is, every time I think my life is sorted, I'll relax a little bit and before I know what's happened, things become a tangled, knotted mess that steals far more time than I would like. We're not talking damaged cables here - big issues that become dangerous and need to be left for good. We're talking about fixable but frustrating tangles - good intentions with bad outcomes, ill-thought out plans, etc. Whilst not hugely threatening, these issues can certainly give me a bit of a headache.

I recently found myself in a bit of a knotted mess, having not thought things through properly (which isn't anywhere near as much of a rarity as I would like). Nothing serious, but enough for me to have to respond to it. Just like the cables, it can be so tempting just to leave them tangled, or perhaps only uncoil as much of the cable as you need. It can be so tempting to address immediate issues and leave potential issues as far out of the picture as you'd like, but that only causes more damage.

Whilst I strongly dislike these issues, part of me quite likes the stark reminder that I am utterly useless when I run on my own steam. I am so grateful that I have hope in Jesus Christ, as I would be a total mess if I didn't. It'll take time to untangle everything and I have no doubt that by the time I finish, there will be other messes to untangle. However, just like at work, the more cables I untangle, the better I get at it. I'll get there. Eventually.