It’s tax time again and that means my annual meeting with my CPA.  It’s not the usual “where are your W-2’s and interest income statements?” meeting because my CPA is my former boss, a Christian and a good friend.  So we spend a few minutes of the nitty gritty and the rest of the time we spend talking about what God is doing in our lives!

Larry wasn’t a Christian when I was working for him.  He hired me straight out of college.  I’ll never forget the job interview.  Larry was a partner in a two man CPA firm.  He employed one computer tech and a secretary.  He was unhappy with his current secretary, so I came in to interview early one morning before she arrived.  I sat in his office and we talked over my resume.  He seemed happy with my degree and the courses I had taken in college.  I remember him saying, “Well, I guess I need to give you a typing test.  Go type this and let me listen.”  He handed me a book and I went to the secretary’s desk and started typing.  After a few minutes, he told me to come back into his office.  He said it looked good and I was hired!  It was right before Christmas, 1985 and being the nice guy he was, he asked me to wait and start at the beginning of the year so he wouldn’t have to let the other lady go before Christmas.

I worked for Larry and Jud for six months and then his firm merged with another accounting firm in town.  This firm had five partners and employed close to 20 people.  It sure was a change.  But, I remained with the firm until 1994 when I felt impressed to quit my job and stay home with Karlee, who was three years old.

Of course, working at a CPA firm you had the perk of having your taxes done for free.  It was great.  After I quit, I continued to go back to Larry every year to have our taxes done.  I began a home based business and it was helpful to have a CPA to make sure I was keeping my records straight.  And every year we would talk about how business was going.

The conversation turned to writing music at my tax meeting in 2003 and going back to work so that I could fund this new “hobby”.  By this time, Larry had become a Christian and it was so neat to be able to share what God was doing in my life.  And then in 2004, we discussed the recording of my first CD.  It was so awesome.  Larry and his wife came to my first CD Release concert!   

When I walked in his office yesterday afternoon, his first comment was “So tell me all about what’s happening, girl!”  Of course, that’s all it takes with me.  I brought my new CD to give him and told him about the songs that Karen Peck wanted to put on “hold” and some other cool things that are going on.  Then he looked at me and said, “So tell me, what is your dream in all of this…what do you see yourself doing?”  WOW…..where do you start?  At first I wondered if I could put it into words and then I realized I knew exactly what the answer was.  It’s two fold…..I want to write commercially viable songs (recorded by an artist) and I want to be on the front lines in ministry.

When I am given the opportunity to share my music, I find that I have a passion for not only singing, but sharing about what God is doing.  I told Larry that I imagine I feel sometimes the way a preacher feels when he is delivering a sermon and KNOWS that God is putting the words in his mouth.  There are times I am sharing my testimony and I feel “led” to say something I had not planned to say and I know without a doubt that it is God.  That is an awesome feeling.  The coolest thing is that I know that God cares about someone in that audience enough to impress upon me to say what they need to hear.  Does that make sense?  I’m not a prophet, I’m just an instrument.

In fact, when I got home last night I was reading the next chapter in The Artist’s Way and she was talking about this exact thing.  “We are the instrument more than the author of our work.”  These songs are not about something that I sit around and think up; these songs are what God is wanting to say through me.   My job is to listen for it, feel it in my heart and write it down.  The more I realize that, the more I will be available to listen for those moments of inspiration.  The paintor, Jackson Pollock said, “The painting has a life of its own.  I try to let it come through.”  That is exactly how I feel when I am writing.  I take pencil in hand and just try to let the song say what it needs to say.  When I compose the music, I want the music to have the freedom to fly….I don’t want to stifle it by choosing chords that are familiar to me.  I sing it over and over until I find what “feels” right.  I am aware that I am just the instrument.

The author says that when she is teaching her students about screenwriting, she tells them to remember that “their movie already exists in its entirety.  Their job is to listen for it, watch it with their mind’s eye, and write it down.”

Today, another great song is waiting to be written, another symphony is waiting to be composed, another life is ready to be touched, another ministry is ready to be started…….will you be the instrument?