An unsolicited Piano lesson in humility

I play the piano...well, I am the only one of four daughters who took lessons of any decent period of time. Rather amazing, since I was not very disciplined in any area of my life back then least of all piano practicing.  But, I had a wonderful teacher in Chillicothe, Illinois, Mrs. Grogan, who was patient with me probably because she loved my parents and I stuck with it for ten years. During my teenage hormonal years I played the popular songs of the day, mostly Beatles and cried out my emotions. Music brought me and still does great comfort.

I truly enjoyed playing the piano as long as nobody was listening, but as I grew into an adult, moved away from home, the piano playing stopped. Then I became a member of the Mormon Church and moved to Jacksonville into a small branch (congregation) where piano players were desperately needed (we are a lay ministry, so no one gets paid for such responsibilities). So, with a prayer in my heart I started playing the hymns for our services, hitting plenty of sour notes, but no one seemed to mind. This has been all the piano playing I have been doing for the last 42 years. No practicing.

So, coming to Germany to a small branch once again, I thought, "well, I can't speak the language, but maybe I can be of service playing the piano...they have probably been singing acapella all these years." Imagine my surprise, our first Sunday here when an angel sat at the piano/organ playing beautifully and singing with a lovely soprano voice. Meet Angelika Albrecht. Later, visiting her home on Christmas Eve where sat a lovely Grand Piano, I learned that she is a voice teacher, and she used to sing and play publicly in addition to some opera. Thankfully, I only need to play when she happens to be out of town on Sunday, but one fateful day when her sister was visiting, I foolishly told her, "oh, sit with your sister, I will play" and so very nervously and self consciously with a few sour notes as always I played the hymns. I would certainly never call myself an accomplished pianist.

Sunday, after church, Sister Albrecht (that's what we call each other believing that indeed we are all brothers and sisters with God as our Father) says, "Oh, Sister Franz, come to the organ, I want to show you something." (She speaks English as well as German) She laid her hands tenderly on the keys and told me how to move them differently than a piano. The fingers needed to glide from one note to the next rather than being lifted like on a piano. Now, instead of thinking to myself, why thank you dear Anjelika for giving me a 2 minute lesson..how I appreciate learning this from one so accomplished!! I will need to practice and get this right. No, instead, I go to "not enough'"...can't speak the language, can't play the stinking organ right, good grief! It's at times like that I just have got to go to gratefuls and "I am enough" but I didn't catch myself right then. You know when I caught myself?  One of the young missionaries here from Idaho, dear Elder Keller who has only been in Germany a month, just a few days longer than us was interpreting the service through headphones for those of us who don't speak German: me, Daniel from Ghana and Vladimir from the Ukraine. This is a difficult task...listening in German and then giving out the English translation. He stumbled a bit and there were long quiet pauses; he's not quite as fluent as his companion Elder Skidmore who has been out a few months longer. But it's very good practice.  Vladimir, who was sitting next to him, said, "you need to be improving in German every week; you don't seem to have improved this week!"
How did Elder Keller respond? Did he say, "Heck, I can't do this! I'll never be good enough at speaking German! What am I even doing here?!!" (yes, that's what I was doing with the "organ lesson") No, he shared the experience with us, laughed about it and resolved to work a little harder at studying the language this week. He is 18 years old. I am 66.

And, so a lesson in humility. Thank you Anjelika, Elder Keller and Vladimir for my Sunday lesson. I am enough. We are all enough. And with God's help, we can improve and change. The learning will continue I am sure.