October 27th, 2021

by | Oct 27, 2021 | PS from PS | 0 comments

ps from ps…
Outtakes – “a portion of the film product that is removed in the editing process and doesn’t make the final cut.”

Yesterday was filming day for WNY Church Unleashed.  We’ve been leading this digital worship project for about 18 months now.  Each week, it’s a different worship service but filled with the same components of confession, lessons, sermons, creeds and prayers.  You would think we would have it down by now right?

But you would be amazed how many times we say the wrong words, mispronounce names, start cracking up, drop something we were holding, knock over worship implements and sometimes a combination of all of the above.  I mean, we are professional pastors that lead worship for a living.  Live even!  And yet sometimes, we really mess it up while we are recording.  Our goal is always “one take.”  But that rarely happens.  

Thankfully, our producers do an excellent job of cutting out our “outtakes.”  They take out the messes that we make, clean it up, trim the fat and put out a great product for worship online and on TV.

Reminded me that it’s important to have our faith in God to play that same role in our daily lives: to “adjust” our outtakes.

Let me invite you to give some thought to your life’s current outtakes:

1.  What are the moments that didn’t go so well and you just started cracking up?  The times you could poke fun at yourself and your good friends around?  The moments you don’t need to take yourself so seriously?  What can those moments teach you?

2.  What lines have you missed?  What things that should have been said to loved ones or friends got skipped?  Is there a moment this week you can go back and re-run that dialog?  

3.  Have you knocked anything over on set?  Any one?  Is there something/someone that needs to be picked up, dusted off, needs an apology?

4.  If you could do a “second take,” what would you concentrate on?  What action/area needs to be rewound?

Outtakes.  The best part about having them is getting to learn from them.  We are all blessed that we have such an incredible God in our lives that deals gently and forgivingly with ours.  Gives us ways to trim them up.  And offers us a more polished second take.  

This week, may we laugh at the mess ups, fix the ones we can and noticed the opportunities for better second takes!

Lord, thanks for being an incredible director and producer.  Amen

Still in One Peace
ps