I made the promise . . .

I made the promise so I had to keep it. A few weeks ago at our jr high Wednesday night program I told the room full of students that we wanted them totally involved in the worship element of the program. I said, “bring whatever instruments you have and we just want to hang out with you guys and worship.” The thing about jr high students is that they actually do listen and for the most part believe you. Benji showed up last week with a ukulele. Yes, that is right, I said ukulele. I didn’t know how to spell that before I bloged this. Benji is a cool kid with a great sense of humor so I really didn’t know if he was just goofing off. I noticed right off the bat that this was a quality nylon yuk and Benji had a great ear. He tuned it himself perfectly. He had a chord book with some Hawaiian Island songs and informed me that it was his mom’s. Three weeks later he is still bringing this thing and patiently learning his finger positions. I had to keep my word so . . . . at the end of “Tell the world” (This kicking United Live worship song we are doing right now) we did a little Jack Johnson feeling outro to the chorus with him and bongos.

It was a cool moment. The students were a bit stunned and Benji was glowing. I leave for YS in the morning. This moment tonight will stick with me as I hang out with youth leaders and attend classes. It comes down to moments like that. It wasn’t difficult to put that feature piece in. It was one of the most impacting things that happened tonight in the life of Benji and for the culture of our group. It put the proof in the pudding. When we tell students we are going to involve them then we have to do that very thing.