The entire day of the Festival is exhausting (I got to the church just before 7 am and left after 10 pm). Then there's the cleanup, the rearranging of the sanctuary and fellowship hall back to some semblance of how it was before we arrived. Vacuuming, moving risers, chairs, tables, sweeping, emptying the trash throughout the church, making sure all the litter and music was picked up, etc., etc, etc.
And to what avail?
Well, to this avail: Young people are being taught a technique of accurately and correctly singing that they can use to praise God the rest of their lives. Where else is this occurring? Certainly not in most evangelical churches today. If anywhere, it is being taught in "mainline" churches and in colleges that still care about such things. Occasionally in public schools who have choral directors who care (and where the students are adequately disciplined to actually listen and take in the instruction).
The day reminded me also of the truth that anything of value is costly. Is there value in learning good vocal/choral technique? Is there value in praising our Savior well? I think so. What is the cost for this in this case? The cost is several weeks of preparation and work and a very long day of rather exhausting labor. Is the cost worth it? Yes!
As a corollary it taught me also that to be really effective in communicating the truth and meaning of music (be it piano playing, violin playing, singing, whatever) takes many hours of diligent labor in practicing. This does not come naturally, easily, nor without discipline. It requires scheduled laborious work. I've not done well in this area in my life (although I was more disciplined in college in practicing my voice and organ lessons). Nevertheless, to be really good at anything takes an old fashioned four-letter word:
WORK!
