Its OK

I have just started to do a new "job" in my church, running the words on the screen for the worship songs. Then, since we are such a small community I start the video of the Pastor who is serving 4 other small areas and one large city. It took some getting used to watching the pastor on a screen and not just feet away from me but I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Technology was my "thing" in my professional life. I love all the innovations and new ideas that can be incorporated into our lives. That being said technology moves very swiftly and being out of the main flow for over 5 years you can imagine the changes and updates that took place in my absence.

I was in training first so I could decide if this was the way I wanted to serve in our church and if I felt this is where God was calling me. There are 2 monitors, 2 keyboards, 2 mice, and a gizmo to change from one screen to the other and 2 services to do. Yes, lots of things for this old dog to learn.

The wonderful young woman I learned with made it all so seamless and easy. Yes this is the job I really want to do. [not on stage but one of those behind the scenes kind of jobs, Perfect] I informed the leader after a few training sessions that I was willing to serve alone if needed.

I wanted to do a PERFECT job. [all my years of living and I was still under the illusion of perfection] Nervous about being on my own, I was determined that I could do this. The first thing that lead to the downward spiral was I lost the mouse. No not the actual clicker deal but on the screen [of which there are now 2] I wiggled and jiggled that little thing and still nothing would show on the screen so I could click next. [thank goodness for a high school senior who was doing the lighting sitting next to me in the booth] With the help from the lighting worker we found that sneaky little thing and everything was back on track.Little did I know that the mouse was doing a strange dance on the monitor for the performers. Thank goodness they were the only ones that had to watch the flying mouse and  my mistake.

All went smoothly until the pastor was praying. I was trying to decide when I had to slide the gizmo thingy back to the other screen to get back to the pastor at our campus for the final prayer. Ok so I was an overachiever and cut the pastor off and now there is no one on stage. The poor team was scrambling to get themselves on stage and take if from there. Oh yeah that was PERFECT!

After the first service we meet to talk about what worked and what needs to be changed. Ouch! I was beating myself up from the time of my first mistake until the blow out of my last mistake. It was a long walk from the booth to the meeting. I was wishing I could disappear.

The worship leader runs this little meeting. He is the most upbeat positive person I have ever met. He is not this way just every now and then, nope this is the way he is ALL the time. The categories were on the white board and I was dreading being embarrassed in front of the others in the room. [its not like the whole church hadn't lived through my mess up] You know what happened? No berating me, no pointing fingers with a mean face, no telling me that this definitely wasn't the job for me. Nope he just said that I could watch the timer to help me to know when to switch that little gizmo and he moved on to the next thing. Wow, no one was looking at me or laughing or rolling their eyes [they're all younger, much younger than I] we just moved on. Then the words great job guys let's do our best again.

Huh, our best. The pressure had been lifted from perfect to best. I think of this now whenever I have something to do and the word perfect sneaks into my mind. I remember to do my very best and not worry about perfect. Now the jobs, and things I do or attempt to do seem to be more enjoyable and they turn out a whole lot better and I know that I have done my best. Perhaps thinking along these lines will help you move from perfect to best.