Opportunity Center Jam

Another God wink, another time that I feel like I am where I am supposed to be. When it seams there is a lot of darkness in the world, there is still light that shines. Let me share my story.

I recently had the opportunity to jam with some friends at the Opportunity Center of Owensboro where they have been supporting people with disabilities since 1956. This facility is awesome and provides SO MANY great things for the folks there to do. These include learning new skills, meeting new friends, games, crafts, getting out and enjoying our community, and just plain having fun!

I meet some of the clients that go there a couple years ago when Wayne Morris and myself started played music there for the first time. Since then we have not only stopped in to play some tunes there, but they have taken road trips to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum and we jam with banjo ukulele's, also known as banjolele's.

A banjolele is a ukulele shaped like a banjo. It still has the nylon strings that make it easier to push them down, and I use an open tuning so people can strum open strings to make their first cord. I added some colored markers for players to follow along with us by simply playing a barre chord, that is pushing all 4 strings down at the same time. Since it is open tuning and color coated, a person can play it right handed, left handed, on their lap, upside down, it really does not matter. If a person struggles pushing down on all of the strings together, they can use a guitar slide, a round metal piece that goes around any finger they choose to use, and helps push the strings down evenly.

So the other day, I brought in 12 banjoleles all tuned up and ready to go, passed them out, and off to the races we went. Everyone listened well, strummed along, followed along with my instructions, and sang their hearts out. It was absolutely amazing to hear them singing and watch them smile. 

Were they all playing in tune? no. Were they all playing in time? No. Were they able to comprehend all that I was teaching them using musical terms? No. Was everyone in that room on cloud 9 and jamming like there is not a worry in the world? You can bet your bottom end on that!

When I get to work with special needs one on one, it does make it easier to show and teach them and have them play and follow along, and those are great moments too, but this day, it was "Uncommon Instrument Day", and the banjolele is pretty uncommon, but the music we played and sang was familiar to all who where there. 

God has revealed something to me, slowly but sure over the years, that the greatest musicians are the one's having the most fun. It is certainly not the best technical players, singers, or rock stars, the one's making all the money or have all the fame. Some of those folks are the most unhappy people in the world. I've meet some of them and I know first hand. That's not always a bad thing to be popular and make a lot of money, it's just not the most important thing, and we don't need to be putting people up so high on a pedestal that they actually start believing they are better than anyone else, but our human nature does that. 

So what does having the most fun look like? Well, it is what I saw the other day when my friends and I were jamming, or when someone goes to a nursing home and sings familiar songs and they all sing along, when you play at the bedside of a hospice patient that sings with every fiber of there being to Amazing Grace, when you give your music, your song, your smile, your God given love to someone else, without wanting anything in return, and leave there not feeling like you blessed them, but they blessed you by simply being in their presence. When you know God has allowed you to serve him by serving others with your gift, that is about as close as a person can get to having real fun.

One of the cool things that my granddad John Lanham taught me is that happiness is contagious. He was a fiddler and played lots of music, and everyone around him was always happy. You can literally share your happiness of playing music, regardless how good of a musician you are, with other people and they will smile, they will pat their foot, they will sing along, it is almost impossible not to. 

So, back to the jam now. Look at these pictures and tell me we did not have a jam. Tell me we did not share joy, laughter, and happiness in a song. You can't! There is no darkness out there that can run away this light that God decided he would shine that day, and it was his light, not mine, and he was gracious enough to use a person like me to share in it. I think of this as a great honor! To be used by the maker of the universe to spread love that can only come from him, that's kind of cool!

What an honer every one of us have each day to be able to literally be an instrument of God's love. We can choose to turn that switch off, or turn it up, that is the gift of choice he has given us. But I will tell you, when we decide we will not share our light, he will still shine somewhere because his light never dims. It may show up another place, another way, but it is always there, and there is no stopping it. But man it is so cool to be a part of it!

Don't stop jamming, smiling, giving freely, sharing kindness, or singing your heart out for the world to hear, because they need to hear it. We all need to hear your voice, regardless if you think it is the best or not. What really and truly defines good? Look at these smiles and tell me what you think. 

​Randy Lanham - Blog from HighHopesMusic.com