You've Got Potential

"Potential" was one of the 3rd grade vocabulary words this past week.  The definition in the students' glossary was "possibility."  I'm not sure I wholly agree.  Possibility suggests chance, and chance is sometimes just luck and timing--a gamble.  When someone says, "Well, anything's possible" we also hear the unspoken,  "but don't hold your breath."

Potential is more than luck and timing.  It begins with the word, potent.  Potency is power.  Potential, then, is what you have the power, strength, and ability to become.  Realizing potential requires energy, application, determination, and diligence.  It also helps to have someone first recognize in you the potential of which you may be unaware.  Or perhaps someone at the very least confirms what you've secretly suspected all along, "You can do this."

This brings us to today's thank you.  It's for Freddie Lu.

Years ago, when I finally got up the nerve to attend a Chancel Choir rehearsal, Christmas was coming, and I thought, "Oh boy, Christmas carols!"  My only experience reading music and singing SATB choral pieces had been in the spring musicals in high school [FYI:  "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" dressed as a stripper in Gypsy is not one that comes up on the Sunday Anthem rotation] and middle school Girls' Glee before that.  Welcome, welcome!  What part do you sing?  Not soprano.  Alto, then.  Sit next to Freddie Lu.

I found myself among professional singers and musicians.  These were choristers with years and years of experience and skill and knowledge.  I was pretty green.  Not only in the sense that I was fresh and inexperienced.  Nauseous, too, once my stomach caught up with what was racing through my brain:  "You can't do this."

Freddie Lu saw my potential.  She taught me in ways both subtle and not.  She sang a little more loudly and a little more in my direction, her finger on the alto line, coaxing with love, as we teachers do, the struggling student.  She helped me believe as she did, that I belonged.  After some time and much nurturing, she pushed me a step further.  "The Cherub Choir Director is moving away, and we're going to need a new one.  With your experience teaching young children, I think you would be a good Cherub Choir Director."  Tag, you're it.

I've been directing the choir of 3-7 year olds since then.  The Cherubs I directed that first year are in high school, now.  I still feel like I'm just playing at this.  I try to make it fun for the children.  But I also try to make it  look like they know what they're doing when they sing in front of the congregation on those special Sundays.  I still sweat it every time.  I don't want to let Freddie Lu down.

Is there someone in your life who believed in you?  Did he or she know you would be great at something before you did?  There is another name to add to your list of people to thank.

Thank you, Freddie Lu, for teaching and encouraging me, and for seeing my potential and acting on it.  Thank you, God, for Freddie Lu.