Perfect Pitch for a Purpose

Ever since I was a little girl, I have had huge dreams of being a famous, wellknown successful singer with a record deal, a tour bus and a sound man. Throughout the years I have entertained entering "Make it or break it" opportunities like American Idol, the Christian Artist Talent Search, state fair competitions, all in an effort to "make it big". After all, God has blessed me with a talent and ability to sing, minister and entertain people in a variety of settings. Since I didn't want to be a choir director or a vocalist instructor, I was sure that God had a fantastic plan for my voice.
But as the years went by, there was always some road block to reaching that dream. Usually it was lack of resources, but I knew deep down that it simply wasn't the Lord's plan for my life. This used to frustrate and confuse me, but as of today, that is no longer a true statement. Throughout the insecurity of my adolescent years, I thought that my voice was all I had to offer the world. Singing was something that I could do, and do well. I couldn't play sports ( I actually ran away from the basketball in Jr. High P.E. class), and didn't seem to ever really "fit in" to my environments due to my being "older than my age". It wasn't that I was an outcast; I had a lot of different friends, and was always the outgoing leader, but I often experienced feelings of lonliness because while my friends tended to care about their latest "crush" or making a team sport, I was more concerned with learning about different religions, cultures and filling my notebooks with original stories and poems.
Those of you who know me personally know that I am the director of activities at senior campus in Minnesota. While I pretty much manage and run all the aspects of the activity department, I spend half of my work day working exclusively with our memory care residents (senior citizens diagnosed with Alzheimers disease.) I am constantly using my singing voice with them. I am able to pull old tunes that they know by heart off the top of my head, on pitch and on key. For many of them, singing those old songs is the only bridge that I have to their heart. This afternoon I took 4 of my residents outside to enjoy the beautiful spring weather. As we sat on the porch, watching the cars go by, we belted out everything from "America the Beautiful " to "Daisy, Daisy" and a few classic hymns. After awhile, I turned to them, and asked them if they ever got tired of my singing. They all looked at me and several of them said almost unanimously "Sarah, we love it when you sing for us!". It was in that moment that I realized why God has given me the gift that He had. Little did I know that instead of reaching the masses of individuals and traveling across country, I would be in a small town, sharing my voice with the same 12 people every day...and that every day, was a new opportunity to hear those songs, because most of their short term memory spans never last more then 15 minutes!
To put an even more beautiful spin on God's plan, it represents how the Lord's mercies are new every morning. That our sin and humanity has caused a kind of "memory loss" of His goodness, and every morning we get a new song, as if we've heard it for the first time. God's plan truly is perfect, isn't it? When we submit our talents, desires, hopes and dreams to Him, He uses them in exactly the way He intended them to be used from the start. When we throw up our hands and say "O.k. Lord, lead the way"...Guess what, He actually does that! Ever since I was a little girl I have been able to sing songs off the top of my head with perfect pitch and right on key. Little did I know what big plans God had for that gift. Little did I know, until today.