Welcome to today’s reflection.
Today I reflect on the things we try, the ones that stay with us and those we eventually leave behind, and how Ecclesiastes reminds us that there may be something sacred in the enjoyment of simply giving something a go.
At the age of eighteen, I was given an opportunity that probably changed my life.
It all stemmed from a book I got one Christmas called How to Be a DJ. For some reason, it captured my imagination, and I spent hours thumbing through the increasingly tattered pages, looking at 1970s photos of long-haired DJs playing to large crowds of people dancing. I am an introvert, but I wanted to be behind that desk.
A chance encounter led me to a local person who ran a mobile disco in halls around the area. I asked if I could help, and he agreed. For a while, I just watched him work, in awe of how he used the music to get people dancing and encourage them to let go a bit.
Then one day it happened. After we had loaded and set up the gear, he stepped aside and said, ‘Now it’s your turn.’ I was to do the warm-up section, the beginning of the evening.
The warm-up section of the evening is the hardest. You had to go from getting people to come in and talk to their friends to encouraging them to get on the dance floor. Crucially, you could not drop a massive banger of a song, because that would rob the main event later. You had to play other songs to get them into the mood.
Over the months that followed, I learnt that craft and loved every minute of the challenge. My job was done when I handed over to the main DJ with a full dance floor and all the classics still to be played.
Of course, in the end I would become the main DJ, but I needed those months of hard slog, during which I often felt like giving up.
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You might expect me now to pull out a Bible verse or story that speaks into how we must try hard and not be disillusioned, sticking to the task with the assurance of rewards to come. There are plenty to choose from, after all.
