Beeson Podcast, Episode #536 Dr. Lark Ball Feb. 16, 2021 >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I am your host, Doug Sweeney, here with my co-host, Kristen Padilla. We are glad to be back with you this week as we continue to celebrate our African-American Ministry Emphasis Month. Before we get underway, let me remind you that our Fall 2021 application deadline is March 1st. So, if you or someone you know is interested in Beeson, we would love to be in touch. Please reach out to our admissions office and help us spread the word. You can learn more on our website: www.BeesonDivinity.com Kristen, would you please introduce today’s distinguished guest? >>Kristen Padilla: I will. Hello, everyone. We have Dr. Lark Ball with us on the show today. She is the Music Ministry Director at White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvanian. She is a two-time Beeson graduate, and having earned a joint degree, an MDiv degree and a Master of Church Music degree at Samford as well as a DMin, which we’re going to ask her about today on the show. Dr. Ball, thank you for coming on the show today. We’re so glad to have you. >>Dr. Ball: It is absolutely my pleasure. >>Kristen Padilla: Well, we always like to begin these conversations by allowing our guests to share a little bit more personal information. So, where are you from, Dr. Ball? How did you come to faith in Jesus Christ? >>Dr. Ball: I am originally from Baltimore, Maryland. I was born in Annapolis, but raised in Baltimore. My father and my mother carried me across the threshold of my home church, the Timothy Baptist Church, in Baltimore, pastored at that time by the late Dr. William T. Mayo. I guess I was about maybe a year and a half, two years maybe. From there on in I’ve been at that church. My father became the pastor. His name was James L. Ball. He was the pastor for 47 years. If you are a pastor’s child then the mere fact that they are a pastor means you take music lessons. It doesn’t matter whether it’s keyboard or voice or instrumental and so forth. You are going to take music lessons. When my father offered it, I didn’t back up. But playing for the church was not the first thing in my mind. Again, since you have an already made musician in the family there isn’t very much you can say to get out of the position. So, when he offered me the position I said, “Okay. I’ll do a little bit. And I’ll try here and I’ll try there.” And he said, “Well, what if we pay you $25 a month?” And at 12 years old, when I started, $25 a month is pretty good pay. So, I got into it a little bit by little bit. I stayed at the church. I grew up there. I knew all of my friends there, all of our family friends were at the church. And to be a Christian was just something that you just did. I guess I came to Christianity by osmosis, because I didn’t know anything else. I really didn’t know any other social life as such. But, in playing for the church I got to have a little more experience, a little more. I came up under some wonderful musicians. I call their names out of respect, because most of them are gone from the scene now. I learned, first, under Miss Aretha Mayo and Miss Lattice Davis was the organist, and Mr. James Peterson was the organist and choir director, and Mr. Marcus Williams, praise God, is still with us. A good friend. I came up just following in their footsteps. The idea I had was you teach the choir music, you play the music, you play the hymns for the church, for the service. And that’s what you did. I had no clue as to the intricacies of planning a worship service, including music to enhance the worship itself. But I carried on until one day we didn’t have a musician and everybody turned to me and said, “Well, looks like you’re going to be the Minister of Music.” And I said, “Uh, yeah, huh? Excuse me?” And again, I had no clue. I had no idea. I only had one aspect of music ministry and that was to teach the choir. But my father was a regular attendee of the Hampton Ministers Conference in Hampton University and one year he says, “You know, you need to come down with me and see what goes on.” So, this was 1980. 1980 was my first time at Hampton. My father kept saying, “I want you to meet Dr. Flax. He’s the director there. You need to get to see him. You need to get to know him.” And my first year there was the year that he passed away. So, I missed him. But I got to meet his protégé, Roland Carter, and my experience with him became more, I guess, of a mentor type. Because we really became good friends. From there on in and others. I came up watching Philip McIntyre direct and I was ... I think the word is gob smacked. I had no clue as to the depth of music that could be achieved, the perfection of music that could be achieved, until you work at it. That was a defining time for me. I attribute the Hampton Conference as really setting me on the path of giving me the example, setting in front of me, what ministry and music and what ministry as a whole was supposed to be. Because in those early years, the conference itself was limited to pastors. And music ministers. So, you couldn’t be a part of the choir unless you could read music. Everybody just wasn’t invited or wasn’t supposed to be down at Hampton for the Ministers Conference because there were some things that ministers were supposed to say to ministers, pastors were supposed to pastors, and not for the general ear of the congregation. And I sat under wonderful preachers, trailblazers – is the best I can call. I came up under Donald Parson and James Ford, Manuel Scott, A. Lewis Patterson, [inaudible 00:06:39] Williams, Bill Jones, and of course the prince of preachers, Gardner Taylor. I sat in such a place where I could look right down their throats and for as many years as I’ve been down there, there are a couple of instances where the word just seems to germinate, just takes root, and no matter what you do it influences everything that you do. I remember A. Lewis Patterson speaking to the ministers about counting the cost. And he related an experience with his son, because his son was an asthmatic. He described him as a brittle asthmatic. And he told times when he would take his son to the hospital. Once he was discharged they’d be on the way home and then have to turn back and take him right back, because his asthma attack was so severe. This is his son. He has special needs. He’s not going to count the cost of the needs. He’s going to meet the needs. He looked out over the congregation at that time and just told us that you have to identify the need. And then you have to meet the need. You don’t count costs. You meet the need and you shut up. That made such an impression on me that I never forgot that. That has influenced almost everything I have been able to do. Whatever the need is, my aim is to meet the need and shut up. Just do it. Just do it. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Ball, you said something a couple of minutes ago that made me think, “I’ve got to get you to back up just for one more minute and talk a little bit about the chronology of your childhood ministry at the church.” Did you say you started when you were 12 years old? >>Dr. Ball: I started playing for the service at 12 years old. Yes. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. So, what did your teenage years look like? At 12 years old your dad, I guess, is paying you $25 a month to play. Then at a certain point when you’re still a teenager you became the Director of Music at your church. I mean, you really got some great experience as a girl in music ministry. >>Dr. Ball: Yes. Very much so. But, again, I’m at my home church, so this is what I was going to do. But again, I’m working under musicians who are doing the bulk of the work. So, in my early teenage years it was a little dicey because how can you teach music to an older person who looks at you and says, “You can’t tell me how to sing. I remember when you came here. I helped diaper you.” >>Doug Sweeney: Right. >>Dr. Ball: And then my friends, you can’t really say very, very much to them, because they had their own ideas as to what should be and how this goes. And there was a generation in our church that was very musical. All of the kids were singing and we were in different choirs and at all city, and city, choirs at school, and community choirs here and there. Everybody was signing. So, if I was trying to teach a song and I didn’t do it exactly right then they knew, “Mm hmm (Negative), you’ve got to go back. That’s not right.” “Okay, how about we can’t sing as high as that person is, you’ll never make that note and keep things in order. You’ve got to bring it down.” There were issues. I have to accredit my father because you realize that I was never going to be able to grow as easily as I could as long as I was home. He literally shoved me out the door and said, “Okay, you need to go start playing in another situation, a new circumstance.” That’s how he got me to play in other churches. I played at the Jones Tabernacle Baptist Church in Baltimore for a number of years. Then when I finally decided to move beyond, I moved down to Savannah, Georgia. And this is over a course of 20 years or more that these kind of changes had to come about. In Savannah I was at the First African Baptist Church of Savannah. The pastor there is Thurman Tillman. Again, even now, a very good friend. Wonderful preacher. >>Doug Sweeney: That is a historic congregation as well. Very famous. >>Dr. Ball: It is. It’s the oldest Black Baptist Church in the country. Now, there’s some discussion that goes back and forth over that. But I had my time there. Again, they were very instrumental, very influential in all that I did. I learned a lot. I learned this is how best to meet the need. You just don’t pick up the baton and say, “Okay, you got to sing it this way.” Bang, bang, bang. No, that’s not the way. There are ways to get around and so forth. And I had to learn that, because I came up as a child. So, learning as an adult, it was an experience. >>Kristen Padilla: Dr. Ball, I would love to get you to talk about what led you to Beeson Divinity School? You live up in the northeast and then you come all the way south to do a joint degree. (laughs) >>Dr. Ball: Yes, I did. >>Kristen Padilla: So, what brought you to Beeson? What was your experience like here? And how did your studies help shape the minister you became? >>Dr. Ball: As it turns out, it was in Savannah that I met a minister. His name was Allen Green. We became good friends. But he moved from Savannah to Birmingham. He was at the First Baptist Church in Fairfield. He says, “I need you to come down and do a week’s workshop with my choir.” So, I did. In talking to him I had already explained to him that I had really hoped at one point or another to go into full time ministry. I wanted to study. I really needed to study. He says, “Well, you know, there is Samford University. They’ve got a church music program. And you need to go and see if you like it, see if it will work for you.” So, I made an appointment with Dr. Paul Richardson and we talked. I liked what I was hearing. So, I went back and I told my dad, “I am going to be moving down to Birmingham. I need to go to school.” In researching the school a little further I realized that there was a dual degree that I could do it on both ends. I could have gotten just the church music degree and that would have sufficed, but I had already been well prepared for serious word. I really wanted to learn more as far as theology was concerned and more of the bible and more church history. I was just finding all of these things out. I said, “Well, this is the place.” So, I picked up lock, stock, and barrel and moved down to Birmingham. I appreciated the programs there, the classes. I don’t know of a time when I was not supported in the most personal and spiritually defining way from Dr. George down to the general custodian at the time. It was fun to be there. I met wonderful people. People that I still keep in contact with. Beeson became a part of my maturation process. I will give you this much – I came to Beeson at a time when I really needed to be able to define myself as a musician, a church musician, a minister of music, still having that identification concerns. I finally had to let it be known that my apprehension had another base, had another reason. Gosh, I can’t even start it without telling the entire story. I was in Dr. Smith’s preaching class and I think everybody knows the story of the fish bowl and how he slices up his little biblical passages and you reach into the fish bowl and whatever you draw out that’s what you have to preach on. And believe me, when I saw the list ... because he had always given us the preview of how many verses were already there. I looked and I saw one in particular. I said, “God, please, don’t ever let me ... I don’t need that. I don’t want that.” And I reached into the bowl. I was the first one. I reached into the bowl and I pulled out Judges 19 – and I didn’t want to preach that. Because that told the story of the concubine who had been forced out and used by the mob. And her husband stepped over her dead body after she had been killed. In his anger he had her body cut up and distributed among the tribes to show his displeasure. I did not want that particular scripture, because I am a survivor of domestic abuse. That scripture resonated in a way I just did not want to do. I am so grateful that Dr. Smith worked with me and prayed with me and I was able to preach that particular scripture. But it left a defining imprint to know that, “Okay, I can do this. I don’t have to live in the shadow of what happened to me so many years ago. I don’t have to be defined by that. I can move ahead.” I came to that realization at Beeson. And there were more, more than Dr. Smith, there was Dr. Outlaw who is from Baltimore and knows my father. She had preached at my home church. But so many others – Dr. Wallace ... all of them were so supportive of me. My time in Birmingham was not always that easy. But coming to Beeson was an oasis. Because I was so far away. And there was a time when I was really upset. When I came to school I was able to put that aside. A couple of people, friends that I had cultivated there, were there to support and pray with me. Dr. Wallace, Dr. George understood the situation and they were fast – no hesitation – let’s do what needs to be done. Let’s pray. I was able to, again, be able to get past that. Beeson was just the oasis. I didn’t worry about cultural differences or whether or not I was being perceived right or wrong or anything to that effect. I was just able to come and worship. Sit in the chapel and worship. And consider all my studies and worship. That was my focus there. Everything else fell into place. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Ball, I don’t have to tell you that there aren’t lots of music ministers these days who have completed Master of Divinity degrees at seminaries. The seminary dean in me wants to ask you what difference your MDiv study at Beeson has made in your music ministry? Would you recommend it to other people who are called to music ministry? >>Dr. Ball: I would most certainly. And I know the kind of study that I did is not easy to do, because the time in which we live has so many distractions, but if one is committed ... I go back to that line that I learned from A. Lewis Patterson, “If you perceive a need, then you work to meet the need. Don’t count costs.” Because the costs won’t work out. When I decided I wanted to do full time ministry it was ten years from my decision to the time I walked across the stage. Ten years. But I held to my desire and I kept working at it until God saw the time for me to be able to do the kind of study that I wanted. What I had learned to do in ministry has been enhanced because I understand what the need is for a congregation in worship. I learned that in study. It’s not all just praise and worship and hallelujah. It’s nice to be able to praise God all day long. But you have to leave the church. And when you leave the church there is a responsibility as being his witnesses to live according to his word to the very best of our ability. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to get it all right. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be heading in the right direction at all times. But we make the effort. In making that effort you have to be able to support that need. Sometimes it’s musically. A friend of mine said, “The pastor has one time to get the Word across. He can preach till his socks are wet. And the congregation will go home, remembering a snippet, if that much. For musicians, we have three or four time to get it right.” With every song that we sing, we have the opportunity to instill a little deeper exactly what God is about, the true and authentic worship of a God that is not of our own limit, not of our own making. We have the opportunity to undergird and support and drive it home, again, the subject, the biblical lesson that the pastor is trying to get across. They will go home singing what we sang in service before they will go home talking about what the pastor says. For the minister of music it is imperative that the music that we teach, the music that we give our choirs that lead our congregations in singing, it has to be theologically sound. It has to be biblically correct. Because music can make that kind of impression, that kind of a lasting impression. The only way you’re going to really know is to do that kind of in-depth study. I will admit, I have not gone to my Greek as often as I should. But there are time and occasions where I pull out my Greek bible and I can see, “Okay, well, maybe that song is not saying exactly the right thing. Maybe this portion of the service is not the appropriate place for this song.” That’s how I’ve been able to really work at enhancing my ministry, because I am determined that whatever I give the choir it will not be wrong. It will not be contrary to what my pastor is trying to teach, trying to instill in the people. I cannot be in opposition to that. I would by all means recommend anyone who has a desire to do music ministry to search out those opportunities where you can do some serious learning. Sometimes it’s just auditing a class. I know Dr. Pounds still does the- >>Doug Sweeney: He leads the Lay Academy, which is a series of classes for people in the community. >>Dr. Ball: That’s the one. Yes. There are those opportunities to do. There are conferences. There are workshops that can be done. And you have to be discerning. You have to really be discerning. Everybody who does a workshop in music ministry does not necessarily promote the right thing, or the same thing. Sometimes our focus, our attention, is set askew. We’re looking at performance. It’s not to say that you should not do the very best that you can and work so hard to make sure that your presentation is as perfect as it possibly can, but that’s not the be all and end all of it. I tell my choir members all the time, “You do the work and the Lord will filter out all the mistakes.” We’re bound to make mistakes. But he can clean it up such that they hear you praising and teaching, admonishing, and encouraging through music. And you are reaching them. They’re not wondering why the altos missed that cue, or the tenors came in too fast, or the basses aren’t singing the bass, they’re singing the melody. They don’t hear that. They hear what they need to hear. If our attention is set on perfection we can do as much damage being perfect in our musical presentation, more so than the little choir that can barely keep a tune or barely sing in two parts. But their thought, their hearts, and the message that they are giving not only in the music, but in their presentation in their determination to give God the very best that they have – makes that much more of an impression and an impact in the lives of our congregation. I will always remember a little lady at my church. She was from one of the islands. She was supposed to sing a solo. She asked to sing this one solo. She sang, “Jesus, Oh What A Wonderful Child” in seven different keys. I mean, she never hit the key. But she brought the church to tears, because she was trying to do her best. She was giving God all that she had. And because she was from the islands, she was very animated in her presentation. We just got right with her. We kind of helped her out and so forth. Honestly, if she sang it in seven keys she sang it in twelve. But she made more of an impression than the most accomplished soloist could come in and sing the same song and then expect to be paid. >>Kristen Padilla: That’s a nice segue into the question I wanted to ask you, Dr. Ball. You mentioned that you serve at White Rock Baptist Church. I believe you told me that you’re in your 20th year at this church. >>Dr. Ball: Yes. >>Kristen Padilla: How did you get to this church? What has your experience been like? For our listeners who are not part of an African-American church, I would love for you to talk about just the rich heritage, the wonderful tradition of music ... especially in the worship service in an African-American church? >>Dr. Ball: Oh, well, I am at the White Rock Baptist Church. I cannot believe it is 20 years. I came to White Rock through another friend, a wonderful friend, very dear friend – served as my mentor for my doctorate work, Dr. Wendell Babson. he’s the pastor of the Monumental Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He recommended me. Just before I came down to Beeson I interviewed with my pastor, Dr. William Shaw. I told him I’ve already made my plans to go study. I told him, “Well, I’m going down to Beeson Divinity School and it’s going to be about four years, three or four years, before I’ll be ready.” The pastor told me, “Well, you go on to school and we will wait.” And they waited. So, I came in and it has been an experience. It has been a wonderful experience. It has been challenging. There is so much difference between Baltimore and Philadelphia, which is 90 miles away. They’re almost like two different countries. Almost. Because culturally speaking the experience in church is so vastly different. Just like it is from Baltimore to Birmingham. Everybody has their culture, their way of worshipping. You just have to kind of filter in and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. You have to respect their history. That’s what I’ve been really trying to do. I think White Rock is the only church that I have ever been in where they pick up the hymn book. We still have hymn books. And you turn to whatever the hymn was, the congregation would sing in four part harmony. That was their tradition. They had a very strong, strong hymnology. The pastor’s desire was to have all phases of music, all genres of music, represented. So, the spirituals, the anthems, the hymns, the gospel. I came in with an addendum, I think, to the gospel, because gospel is always changing, always evolving as time goes on. And they wanted to keep up to an extent. But again, I’m looking at what is said in the songs, do they meet the personality of this congregation? And I’m really being judicious in selecting what pieces are appropriate for this congregation. I think it’s really important that we be mindful that there are some things that are better said through an anthem than through a gospel. There are some sentiments that can be expressed only through the depth of poetry and a hymn than can be projected in a praise song. It just does not meet the need, because sometimes we need to say more than eight bars will give us. In our church, we have the tradition where we could sing a hymn, we could sing a spiritual, we could sing an old gospel. When I was playing the organ I loved when we got the right hymn and I knew I was in the right mode and they were right along with me – just stop the music and let the congregation sing. And they would do it. They would do it. I don’t need to play, okay, I’ll come back. But they have that tradition and it’s always been my desire to uphold it. So, I look at introducing new hymns, new songs. Again, I’m trying to determine the appropriateness for this congregation. My congregation, over the years, if I’ve been there 20 years you can imagine how the congregation has aged over that 20 years. But they’re still vibrant, they’re still committed, they will still sing. They’ll sing the right songs for them. Sing songs that they can identify with. I’m sure they will enjoy Richard Smallwood. I don’t think Tye Tribbett is in their field of appreciation. Simply because they cannot identify with the music. That’s not in their circle of experience. So, I’m very judicious as to what I select. As far as the heritage, the richness of our musical traditions, the tradition of African-American music has a foundation in suffering, in pain. There were things that we could not say, but we could sing them. Just the idea of being denied basic human rights. My parents were very good at shielding us. I did not understand, like I said, my social life was in my African-American church. So, so much of what had been experienced before I did not see. But I was in that era with Martin Luther King. My mother participated in the March on Washington. She sat very close to the stairs. She could tell you. Every day I’d see pictures of that event. I’m looking for her in the crowd, because I know she was there. I was living when he was assassinated. I was living through the bussing era. I could not understand how is it that people just don’t want their children to go to, not school, but to that school? I could not understand it. I think I’m about the last of that generation that has a direct experience in that situation. Our music was paramount in undergirding our determination to stand. The church, the Black church, had a major role in preparing and inspiring and praying and working with the Civil Rights Movement. Any number of preachers in any city that I’d been in, all of them had major input in the Civil Rights Era, in that struggle for ... Before any marchers even began, they were in church first. Our music, again, was what we wrapped ourselves up in and marched out with to the tune, to the beat, of these songs. As we progressed even further, as time goes by, our songs become the inspiration for many of the musical genres that have come along. From the classical to the rhythm and blues, and the jazz. It started out in the church. Many of those singers started out in the church. Our beginning, in our initiation was in the church. We just branched out. We just lost Cicely Tyson and a friend of mine showed me a video of the time when she was honored in the Kennedy Center Honors. CeCe Winans sang, “Blessed Assurance,” and it moves me even now to think of it. I watched Cicely Tyson rejoice. I mean, spread her arms and clap her hands, because they were singing a song that had real meaning to her experience. Then the camera panned over the audience. And I saw Usher. I know Usher had a beginning in the church. And tears are running down his face. Okay, you can move beyond, but you don’t get away. The roots are always there. I have learned over these 20 years and more that if I need to say something from my heart I say it from a hymn. I find myself rejoicing more in gospel and praying more in my hymns. Now, that doesn’t necessarily say that one is not conducive to the other, but that’s my experience. I will share one hymn with you that I have lived with for the last, I want to say, eight years. We learned that my mother dementia and my father wasn’t far behind. My mother passed in 2017 and we just buried my father in September of last year. During this time, at one particular year, my pastor had decided that for the year our theme was the grace of God. And my aim is, “Okay, let’s find the kind of hymns, the kind of songs, that coincide with his vision.” And I ran across quite a few. Some of them I knew. But one in particular I didn’t know. This was a time when I’m trying to find a way to pay for the home that my parents are in. I’m dealing with the veterans administration and trying to get all of that paperwork in order. I’m trying to get all of their accounts in some semblance of order. My back was literally to the wall. I think when I stepped away you could see the imprint. I was just pushed so hard. But I distracted myself by trying to find this hymn. In the New National Baptist Hymnal, the 21st century version, #164 is the hymn called, “He Giveth More Grace.” I listened to that hymn. I read the hymn first. And then I went online and I listened to it. There aren’t very many times when I just completely lose it. Even at home. You know? Ain’t nobody going to see me at home. But not very many times. Well, I lost it. When I came to myself I was literally in the floor. “His love has no limit. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. But out of his infinite riches in Jesus, he giveth and he giveth and he giveth again.” That hymn carried me for a long time. My choir members know. I talk about it all the time. There isn’t another song on this earth that gave me, that could give me, what I needed at that time. It’s not to say it’s not there ... there’s all kinds of music that can meet, but that was my experience. When I gave it to my church to sing; when I taught it to the congregation, I taught it to the choir, it resonated with them. Not just because the theme was the grace of God for that year, but because people were able to identify in their own experiences something that you just don’t hear very often. How often does God refill us and refill us and refill us. And then, what? Refills us again. It resonated. I’d like to think that it’s a favorite of our congregation. I know it’s mine. It doesn’t have to be theirs. It’s mine. It’s my favorite of all time. We have hymns written by African-Americans that speak to the actual life that we are living. Lucy Campbell, “Precious Lord, take my hand ...” >>Doug Sweeney: Tommy Dorsey? >>Dr. Ball: There you go. (laughs) Those are the things that speak, literally, to what we have come through. Worship, across the board, has to be complete. There can’t be the kind of phrase that some of us would like to think is indicative of the church without having gone through some experience, some storm, some difficulty. Then you have reason to praise. I use the example of our communion services, and whenever I’m working with other musicians, I always admonish them to make sure that your congregation understands the magnitude of the sacrifice that Christ has made, that God made in giving us his Son. And how horrible was his suffering on our behalf. They have to acknowledge that before they can get to the celebration. Once you acknowledge the fact that this was done with you in mind, then you have reason to celebrate and to praise and how much more does your praise mean when you’ve come through the suffering first to acknowledge and understand that this was done on my behalf. It did not have to be done. He was compelled to consider us by his love for us. This was the Son of God. I always go back to that one song. He could have called thousands of angels to remove him, to take him out of that situation, but he didn’t. Even in his suffering he thought of us. >>Doug Sweeney: Lark, your discussion of the pain and suffering in the traditions of African-American music have me thinking about the pain and suffering that a lot of our listeners have been going through even recently. Even in this past year or so. Some of which has stemmed from racial injustice, some of which has had to do with the COVID epidemic, some of which has had to do with all of the political turmoil in our society these days. Sadly, we’re still living through a lot of pain and suffering. We always like to end our interviews with folks on the podcast by asking them what the Lord is doing in their lives right now? So, if I may, let me ask you this concluding question. Has the Lord been teaching you anything through the turmoil or recent months that’s new or special? What’s he saying to you? What is he doing in your life these days that might be helpful for our listeners to hear? >>Dr. Ball: He’s teaching me to wait. I don’t understand, and I’ve said it before. I don’t understand the level of disdain and outright hatred that has surfaced in these last few years. I don’t understand it. The pandemic that we’re in right now, it is a serious situation. And lives have been lost, needlessly. So, I’m thinking constantly, “God, you can take care of this. I know you have something in mind for all of us.” Immediately the thought comes to me, “My ways are not his ways. My understand of what he has is so far beneath it’s barely microscopic in his sight.” We’re just so small in his overall plan. I have learned through the experience with taking care of my parents, just wait. He has this in hand. I am constantly reminding myself that he has this world, not just here in Philadelphia or I’m in Wilmington at the moment, or you just there in Birmingham, or just this country, or just this hemisphere. He’s got this entire world. The world encompasses more than just what we see, just this globe. There are people on every hand and in every corner of this world who are suffering through this pandemic, but it’s not like suffering hasn’t been before. He has to have some meaning. I wish I could just sit down and say, “God, just show me. I’ll sleep better if you show me what could happen. Where are we? What’s in store?” Well, he neither sleeps nor slumbers, so why am I up all hours of the night worrying? I’ve got to be able to wait. It’s going to come in his time. It’s going to come by his way. I accept the fact that I may not see it. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get through this pandemic. I pray this is a year we get back to the sanctuary. Even now in thinking about it I wonder just what is our worship going to look like. Because we can’t do as we used to do. What is it going to ... I just have to wait. How long is it going to be before I can even consider getting this vaccine? Just wait. Will my church be able to afford me? Just wait. Just wait. He’s got this in hand. Go to bed. Go to sleep. If I say I believe him then I have to believe him. >>Doug Sweeney: A hard lesson to learn, but one that all of us need to take to heart. You have been listening to Dr. Lark Ball. She is the director of music ministry at the White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a two time alumna of Beeson Divinity School. And we are grateful for her gift of time with us this afternoon. Thank you very much, Dr. Ball, for being with us. >>Dr. Ball: It has been my pleasure. Thank you. >>Doug Sweeney: Thanks to all of you dear listeners for tuning in. We’re praying for you. Please continue to pray for us. Goodbye for now. >>Kristen Padilla: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.