Making Mistakes

The worst mistake anyone can make in the world of the creative arts is being too afraid to make one -- being too scared to reach out and accept the next challenge of going down the trail that beckons us to attain to a higher level of achievement for fear of failure -- being a slave of doubt to where it kills our desire and defeats us before we can give it a try.
Mistakes are an important part of the learning process, and In the creative world the person who doesn't make mistakes is not likely to make anything.
Thinking that we ourselves are not among those people who are creative is ridiculous; ALL human beings are creative, it's part of the human experience, and having no interest in bringing something into existence that wasn't there before or having no interest in progressing to get from some Point A to some higher level at Point B with something that sparks a light in us, is contrary to nature [See blog, A Smooth Sea].
All of life's battles are in the mind; if we can succeed in our minds, we can succeed in our life; it's one of the laws set in motion by our Creator which governs a person's success (See blog, Law Of The Mind].
We need to imagine issuing ourselves a permission card which acknowledges the new organist's citizenship in the land of humanity and reminds us to tell ourselves, "I fall, I rise, I make mistakes, I live, I learn, I've been hurt, embarrassed, humiliated, I messed up but I'm alive, no one lost their life over it, no blood was drawn, I'm human and not perfect but I'm thankful for the privilege, and I refuse to beat myself up over it -- I'm going to learn from it, move on, and do better next time."
When we're playing the organ for a worship service, ceremony, or fraternal meeting, here's how we can make lots and lots of mistakes:
1. Leave everything to chance.
2. Be afraid of making a mistake.
3. Be too sensitive about what other people say to us about our playing.
4. Dwell on our playing errors as we make them, and let them distract us.
5. Play something that's far too difficult for our current grade because we're embarrassed about repeating an easier piece we played earlier.
6. Let the congregation lead the singing.
7. Be intimidated by people who tell us they'd be doing the organist's job -- OUR job -- but they just don't have the time.
Sometimes we can come well prepared, do everything right, and what other people do or fail to do can still drag us into an embarrassment of some kind.
There are many ways that things like these can undermine the new organist's confidence, and there are plenty of people around who don't mind pointing out how wonderful the organist is who plays for some of the other organizations or for the worship center down the road.
Be persistently deaf to this.
Count it all joy when a rough landing makes you even more humble than you were before.
Playing the organ is a privilege, an exhilirating experience that doesn't come to everyone.
We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, count it all joy, get back in the game, and don't ever give up.
Ever.
So, let's see, we've pushed the wrong piston for the Gospel Acclamation Verse and want to deduct 2 points against ourselves for making a mistake.
But, it isn't a mistake; on the contrary, it was a creative decision -- and we should add 2 points for humility.