WAH. Here we go again. After 4 days of playing, my blisters have burst. It's raw flesh now, and it hurts like mad even as I type this. I now have to decide - do I let my fingers rest and prepare for this Friday's service or do I just grin and bear the pain as I practice over the next few days?

Decisions, decisions. It's annoying how my fingers seem to always end up in this sorry state just before major events. They were like this too last year just before my double whammy at the Youth Camp (and I a serious nightmare playing those 2 nights) and now here I am again typing a depressingly familiar post.

If anybody has a surefire remedy for burst blisters, do give me a holler. Preferably something that heals my fingers in 5 mins so I can start practicing right away. I seriously need the practice - I find playing the bass to be so much harder than playing the drums.

Ok - enough. I really have to stop blogging about my fingers before people start thinking I have an unhealthy obsession with my digits.

I really want to go for Wednesday's Good Friday and Easter rehearsal. But I can't. Because duty calls, and as much as I hate it when people force me to skip something I marked down way beforehand for a meeting that they set without even checking if I was free, deep down I know that my priority will always be Youth Ministry before playing at worship. For the good of the ministry I'm meeting with, and for the future of my ministry (no sense in making enemies this early in my ministry), I'll have to submit. I'm thinking of asking to be excused from the meeting, but the scenarios I played out in my head have resulted in either (a) me losing my job, (b) me getting flayed alive or (c) all of the above. But then again I'm melancholic and I'm probably thinking too much.

Oh and both pastors have offered to guide me as I prepare to give my first sermon in July. Quite reassuring to have such a vote of confidence from them. Still, I really have no idea how I'm going to preach. I can't even make announcements without my limbs turning into jelly (hopefully nobody can tell the difference). Everytime I go onstage, my mind just goes blank (why else do I print my announcements each week?). No wait. I don't even have to go onstage. All it takes is for several eyes in the room to focus on me and I'll forget everything I wanted to say. On the flip side, it also means that I'll have to rely on God even more since my human strength really has nothing to offer eh?

4 months to my first sermon. *cue scary music*

posted by NEB at 12:54 AM

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