When yesterday’s work becomes today’s gift
We introduced choreography to “Happy Together” at our last Southern A’Chord chorus rehearsal.
This is no big deal, really. As a community chorus, we include easily mastered choreo with our numbers from time to time.
So why am I writing about it?
Because the choreography was created in 2019 by members of another chorus that several of our veteran members came from – but it was never implemented because that chorus never even learned the song due to COVID and the chorus’s ultimate dissolution.
Yet as head of the visual team, I kept the video of the choreography’s conception. It sometimes pays to be a packrat.
When the Music Staff decided that Southern A’Chord was going to learn this song, I dug the video out of the vaults.
And you know what? It was pretty good. When one current visual team member – who was not at the session in 2019 – saw it, she wrote, “I love it!”
(A majority of the rest of the team are Southern A’Chord members, so there’s not an issue regarding ownership of the moves. So, we’re finally putting them to use.)
Since all this started a few weeks ago and as the days have passed, my thoughts have wandered well beyond choreography. That’s when it occurred to me that God may have been teaching me something in addition to choreo moves.
I started contemplating things we think have been left behind.
How many times have we poured our hearts into something that never seemed to reach its destination? Maybe it was a lesson we taught, a child we raised, a kind word we offered, a ministry we served, a friendship we treasured, or a dream we pursued. Sometimes life changes direction before we ever see the fruit of our labor.
We may quietly conclude that the effort was wasted.
But God doesn’t always work on our timetable.
The choreography sat quietly for seven years. The chorus for which it was created no longer exists. Yet the work itself was not lost. It was simply waiting for another time, another place and another group of women to bring it to life.
I wonder how often God does that with our own efforts.
Isaiah reminds us that God’s word “shall not return to me void” – Isaiah 55:11. Sometimes we assume that promise applies only to those who publicly teach God’s word. But perhaps it can also remind us that whatever work is done in service to Him, its influence may continue long after we’ve stopped looking for results.
The apostle Paul encouraged Christians, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” – I Corinthians 15:58.
Notice what he did not promise. He did not promise that we would always witness the harvest.
Some seeds sprout quickly. Others remain hidden beneath the soil until conditions are right. We may never know when a conversation finally changes a heart, when a Bible class lesson begins to make sense years later, or when a simple act of kindness gives someone the courage to keep going. I can personally testify to that.
Our responsibility is not to force the bloom. Our responsibility is simply to plant faithfully.
Looking back, I smile that a little choreography survived the demise of a chorus. I’m even more grateful, though, for the reminder it gave me.
God can still use what we think has been shelved.
One final thought about the chorus and the choreography: The choreography is now older than Southern A’Chord itself.
On July 20, 2019, nobody in that room knew there would be a Southern A’Chord. They didn’t know who would still be singing, who would move away, who would come back, who would get sick, who would become a doctor, who would become a director. But they made something anyway.
And seven years later, I stood in front of a chorus, teaching it.
Perhaps God knew all along those steps were meant for a different chorus and a different time. Yes, indeed. God sometimes finishes stories we thought had already ended.
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Sallie Rose Hollis lives in Ruston and retired from Louisiana Tech as an associate professor of journalism and the assistant director of the News Bureau. She can be contacted at sallierose@mail.com.
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