Conference Minister's Corner 6-3-2025

Several years ago, I attended a spiritual gathering at which we were each given the task to write a short Pentecost story. We were allotted 10 to 15 minutes to do so. As we look toward Pentecost this week, it seemed like an appropriate time to share my short story with all of you.

“Once upon a time, there was a great group of instrumentalists known as the Spirit Symphony. The members of the Symphony longed for the same thing – to make the most beautiful music the Spirit could write.

Sometimes the Symphony achieved its goal and made beautiful Spirit music. Sometimes it did not.

Sometimes the members of the Symphony would become distracted by things like figuring out which melody or harmony needed to be the dominate one heard. Sometimes the tempo at which some wanted to play couldn’t be matched by others. Sometimes the music demanded different instrumentation and a clarinet player would need to figure out how to be a percussionist.

There were many challenges for the instrumentalists: valuing the voice of each instrument, finding a common tempo, and learning to make music in new ways. But despite all such challenges, they were able to make music together.

There was but one thing that ever silenced the Spirit Symphony. No music was ever heard when those with instruments in their hands stopped listening for the beauty of the sounds they made together.”

Gordon