Karaoke Lessons 

Matthew 23:12 (MSG)

If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Lesson #1

It’s ok to be yourself. Just have fun. We heard many songs, in many languages, and many different talent levels. Singing brings joy and comfort acting as a therapeutic mantra. Oftentimes, we seem to hold back due to some misguided thought of what other people “might think”.

I hang out with a former student sometimes. She is a wonderful person, but her cognitive skills are below level. I don’t know exactly, but I would guess she’s about like a 13 year old in a 30 year old body. We go out and shop, eat, see a movie, get pedicures, etc. She is always laughing, joking, & cutting up. More than once, she has told me, “Amy, I need to teach you to have fun!” There is so much truth in her simplistic observations. For some reason, we grow up and put on a solemn mask. Certainly, my ideas of fun may differ from hers or yours, but the premise remains true:

Be yourself; have fun; sing, even if it’s off-key!

Lesson #2

As I sat and listened to the karaoke singers, the words to many songs leapt off the screen like never before. Many times I hear things differently than they are being sung. As a child, I would loudly sing along with Kenny Rogers,

“You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille.

400 children and a crop in the field….”

Surprisingly, my mom let me know the actual words to the song are “four hungry children”. Certainly that is a more reasonable lyric.

Being a teen of the 80s era, I consider myself familiar with the music of Michael Jackson. One of the karaokiers chose to sing, “The Man in the Mirror”, Friday night. The words to that song struck a chord inside me. Even Sunday morning, I still found myself singing over and over:

I’m starting with the man in the mirror.

I’m asking him to change his ways.

And no message could have been any clearer.

If you wanna make the world a better place,

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

Na na na na na na na na na na….

Truly, this is all we can do. I cannot control you. I cannot control the government. Ultimately, I can only control me. So, if I focus on making myself better, then my world will be better. You, make yourself better, and so on, and so on, and “being better” will become contagious and spread to others, and effect the world!