I attend Men's Chorus practice every day with Sam, and yesterday Craig Jessop, former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, was there to direct them and work with them. Doctor Jessop was incredibly fun, an amazing teacher and leader, and so good at what he does. I feel so honored to sit in on practice and performances; first I had the opportunity to sit ten feet away from the King's Singers and now thirty feet away from Doctor Jessop. Doctor Jessop was there to conduct them in singing Bach's masterpiece, Cum Sancto Spiritu.
While experiences like these are ones I will always cherish, they are not the reason why I love spending time with Men's Chorus. Doctor Jessop summed up my feelings in his own way when he told the guys yesterday that listening to them is an experience equivalent to "standing on the Grand Canyon and looking over the edge."
It amazes me that every day two hundred young men--who would typically be subject to a sad stereotype in the world--come in their t-shirts with their backpacks and their worries, and somehow transform the air into the most vibrant, overwhelming testament. Day after day. I have a spiritual experience every day while I listen. That's the reason why I love it: I get to see the spirit and the work of the Lord. What brings them together is the reverent, committed spirit of youth that is growing harder and harder to find. They, like so many students at the Y, are some of the most upstanding of God's newest adult generation. As I continue to meet different guys in there, I find that knowing them and associating with them uplifts me. Their spirit is the reason for this university: to provide opportunity to allow their testimony to fill the earth.
It inspires me to do my part, to utilize my writing, and to make a difference in the way the Lord intended me to.
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