God is so good

Remember singing that song in Sunday School "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me."? Well I want to shout it off the rooftops right now! I'm just overflowing with happiness!

Okay, so the reason for all this exuberant joy is that I passed my audition at Cedarville!!!!!!! Here's the story:

We drove down to Ohio last night so I would get a good night's sleep (it's about a 4 hour drive), and then had a day at Cedarville doing different things like theory testing, aural skills, meeting the professors & music faculty and stuff like that. My audition wasn't until 2:00, so I had a long time to wait and get nervous. But the professors tried to make me feel at home. One of the piano professors, Dr. C, let me use his office to practice in. There are 19 practice rooms, but he has two Steinway grands in his office! So that was really nice. For those of you who don't play piano or know much about it, playing on a grand (any grand) is much different from playing on an upright. And to the listener, the sound a grand piano makes is so much more beautiful!

Anyways, I practiced in his room for a while and got used to the feel of the grand. It was really good that I was able to practice, because I hadn't been able to practice much the two days beforehand. I had actually been pretty overwhelmed and stressed out, because I was having to teach students, pack and prepare for the audition, and also my teacher had given me many things to work on for my songs (which there was no way I could integrate in the short amount of time I had). But my parents helped me calm down and re-focus. They reminded me that I'm not playing for my teacher, or even for the professors. I'm playing for an Audience of One.

So when the time finally came for my audition at two, God granted me peace. I was able to relax and actually enjoy the pieces (instead of dreading the hard parts). I still messed up, but somehow it wasn't as important anymore. What was important instead was that I was playing for God. 

The two professors told me they were very impressed, and they also told me some things I'd need to work on. They really encouraged me to come to Cedarville (obviously), and told me how it would all work if I did decide to go there. It was really neat to be able to get the answers to a lot of my questions, and just talk with the professors. I could see it all fitting into place, and I just knew that God was opening the door. There was no question.

Isn't my God so good?

~Melody