Finding the Melody
By Alex Ruybalid, Volunteer + Partner Engagement Director
I don’t know about you, but when times are tough, anxiety is rising, and the world seems to be falling apart - I turn to music. This summer I volunteered to teach piano to the students in Mission Adelante’s Arts Community. It didn't dawn on me until a few weeks in, just how strange the masks and COVID-19 precautions were in contrast to the beautiful sounds of the piano, we as a class, were going to try and create. Over the face masks, I saw four pairs of eyes looking at me, four students, four young people who were tossed against their will into this world of the pandemic.
With schools closing, activities and vacations cancelled, community members getting sick, and pools closing, we met every Thursday evening from 4 to 6pm in the main chapel and huddled around the four keyboards.
Masks on,
hands sanitized,
six feet of distance.
I could feel my goals changing 30 minutes into our first lesson: from advancing these students in piano, to showing them how music can help them through the tough times. In the sad times, the lonely times, the times when kids pick on you or call you names, the happy times, the times with friends - your heart has a melody that only music can capture.
Chords, notes, melodies, and voices translate the feelings in my heart more than words ever could. We all have that handful of songs saved that have gotten us through so many hard times in our life. My family experienced trauma and grief growing up, and I can viscerally remember staring out my window at the bleak Nebraska winter, listening to the songs of Jon Foreman, and trying to understand God’s meaning and purpose behind the events in my life.
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
So with each week’s piano lesson, we sat down, listened to music and talked about the feelings each song brought up. We closed our eyes and imagined what scene in a movie would accompany the song we were listening to. We learned how music can interpret our emotions and feelings. One week, my students and I opened our eyes after a song, and a young girl confided that “this is a song I listen to when people are mean to me at school.” In the heart of a middle-schooler, God comforts through music.
So we took this love and understanding of music, and tried our best to apply it to scales and basic piano songs over 10 weeks. We danced, we learned, we laughed as we mimicked the movements of Eddie Palmieri. We sang together, made strange noises - and I know somewhere in the mix a new appreciation for music was born. Being able to teach music during a pandemic really helped me understand the power of it. It helped me see how it is inspired by nature and the image of God around us, and how it can be God’s language of comfort, lament, and joy.
Jon Foreman talks about how in our lives there exists a tension between two things: life and death. Just like a guitar string stretched and tightened between two points on a guitar, we exist in that tension between life and death. In the tension between the salvation at the Red Sea and the unknown exodus ahead, Moses and the Israelites danced, sang and praised God. In this tension between life and death, God is playing a beautiful melody for those who will stop….and hear it.
So in these broken times of racism, Covid-19, the political volume turned up to 10, businesses closing, poverty and inequality increasing, let’s remember that there is also the beautiful gift of life that Jesus has given and is inviting us to live out. If that concept of God's love seems like a foreign concept right now - congratulations, you are a sinful human like the rest of us :)
Let’s together stop, refocus, pray, and meditate until we are able to see the love of God. The sin and death in humanity is deafening and so clear during our current times. Each morning, let’s wake up and remember the life and love that God has called us to. Let’s not only exist in the current tension: let’s dance and make music.
I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage you to sign-up to learn more about volunteering at Mission Adelante this Fall. We are in need of volunteers for most of our programs, and we would love to have you! We have a few orientation dates coming up that would be a great time to learn more about what this fall will look like and all of the safety precautions we are taking here at Mission Adelante. You can learn more here: MissionAdelante.org/orientation
Volunteer Orientation - September 12th + 14th
We want to invite you to volunteer with us during the fall trimester! Come join us for a socially-distanced orientation on Mission Adelante, September 12th and 14th. You can register here: MissionAdelante.org/orientation
Are you curious what it looks like to volunteer at Mission Adelante?