The stage was set. The equipment checked and double-checked. The band was plugged in and ready. Everything was as expected until they played the first song.
it stealthily crept across the sanctuary
They sounded horrible. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the musicians were horrible. The house mix sounded atrocious. There’s always that “singers need to warm up” and “musicians need to loosen up” sort of first-song-stuff but this was well beyond that.
it moved closer to the booth
I tried rebuilding the mix starting with the lead vocal and the rhythm guitar. It didn’t work.
it leaped upon him, claws out and teeth bared.
I doubted every bit of my production skills. Maybe I’d only been a lucky mixer all these years. Maybe my luck ran out. “Maybe I’m not that good. Maybe I’m not any good,” I pondered, half believing it.
it slashed at his body and sunk its teeth into his shoulder
“This is it,” I thought, “I should go home. It’s over. I’m done.”
the fight would soon be over
“Wait! I’ve had this problem before and I do know what I’m doing,” I told myself, more sure of myself though still with misgivings. A handful of changes later…no improvement.
it gnawed into his neck, tearing muscle
“Do I really know what I’m doing? Why didn’t that work? It should have worked,” I thought while sweat beaded on my forehead. How would I tell my technical director that I can’t mix?
it would have its prey
As quickly as it started, it came to an end. I tried one last possibility. A few changes to the bass and keyboard EQ’s and all was good. The mix was right and the doubt ws gone.
it released him and crept away.
The Take Away
King David knew the power of praise and worship. He knew the power of music (1 Samuel 16:23). Outside of the musicians, who else would be under attack to prevent congregational worship? You would. You are. And so am I. So to those who laugh at the idea of “spiritual warfare” on the equipment and the people in the technical arts, reconsider the power of worship and the enemy’s desire to make it stop.
And yes, that did happen to me.
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ronald king says
January 25, 2015 at 8:34 pmWow finnaly I feel at home… hehe
I said it was an attach when it happened. They didn’t believe.
It was on my shoulders alone. They didn’t or couldn’t understand.
We are directly responsible of broadcasting God into the “air”.
Eph 2:2 says that space has a prince over it and he don’t like it. No wonder
We get attached through any and every avalable avenue.
Blake Sessionss says
January 20, 2015 at 5:28 pmThis is spot on man. Thank you for the encouragement.
Jim says
January 16, 2015 at 11:23 pmI had it happen during a Christmas production. Wound up being an unforeseen mechanical failure, (The laser in the CD player went out.) It had worked fine in the run through prior to performance. It took me WEEKS to get over that & rebuild my confidence, with all the what ifs playing out in my head.
We now have back ups to our backups. Cd players & laptops, for just such an emergency.
Rusty Dailey says
January 16, 2015 at 7:12 pmVery well said and one of the major reasons why it is so important to Pray over your volunteers as well as your equipment before every service starts. Thanks for sharing.
VIctor says
January 16, 2015 at 5:02 amYou’re a Prophet. i thought that only happened to me.
Garrett says
January 15, 2015 at 8:11 pmHad this happen to me several times. I fixed it using something my dad tought me “simplify and isolate”. I ended up going back to where I knew it was working by pulling an old save and rebuilt it back from there. I to this day have no idea why it sounded as bad as it did but I learned an important lesson of how to quickly get it back to where it was before.
It does question your judgement when it does happen and it falls on you to fix it. And it has to be FIXED. The good news is God placed you in that moment to do it.