Snooze No More

Do you watch “America’s Got Talent”? It’s a show I normally wouldn’t watch, but this go around I happen to catch the end of the first show of the season and the introduction of the carwash guy, Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., who sings with the voice of a 40’s crooner. You’ve got to be a baby-boomer to remember the radio playing in the kitchen and hearing Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra and others singing in crystal clear, seemingly effortless voice tones. Anyway, this carwash dude opened his mouth to sing and I had flash-backs of my childhood for an hour. I don’t watch the complete show, ever, because most of it is a totally ridiculous disappointment, but I’ve been trying my best to watch for this guy with the million dollar voice, because I believe he will win. Murphy had never auditioned or performed for a large audience before appearing on the talent show. He awed the judges as well as the full auditorium of people who witnessed the birth of a star. Landau took himself to a place of discomfort just to see if he really was any good and Howie Mandel guaranteed Landau his life was never going to be the same. Piers Morgan said, “…you are standing there crying because you didn’t know how good you were and now you do”. Murphy said he never expected to be received and loved by the audience in this way.
The kind-hearted hostess of an amateur musical spied a lonely-looking little man huddled in a corner of the room and paused to make conversation. “Tell me”, she asked, “do you play any musical instrument?” “Not away from home”, the little man replied. “How peculiar”, remarked the hostess. “What instrument do you play at home?” she inquired. The man replied, “Second fiddle.”
The young man who was to make his first public speech came to the podium and murmured: “My-mm-my f-f-friends, on the way to the banquet only God and I knew what I was going to say to you …and since I’ve misplaced my speech papers, now only God knows what it is I was going to say.”
The older preacher told the younger preacher that if he ever forgot the words of the marriage ceremony to start quoting scripture until he remembered. Sure enough, at the next wedding ceremony, the young man forgot. Sadly, the only scripture he could remember at the time was, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
[Hebrews 12: 14-29] I know it wasn’t the first time that Landau Murphy had sung before an audience, but it was the first time he laid it all on the line to experience a life changing event. He really didn’t know what he had to offer the world until he displayed it. His life will never be the same again. Are you still hitting the snooze button on your talents? Are you still hitting the snooze button when it comes to returning your talents to God? This is a rather difficult subject to subject people to. I have to tell you, I’ve never been happier in my life than when I turned my life over to Jesus and began using my talents to the glory of God. I discovered that no one in this world can offer me what heaven can. I discovered I can’t get to heaven or receive the blessings of heaven without the church and the Holy Spirit of God. Was I nervous to present myself before God and the church? Sure! How will I be received? Are my talents worthy of God and the church? I left worldly things behind and laid my life on the line, seeking forgiveness and a better lifestyle. I’ve been given it all in abundance.