Thanks to Chris Rich for giving me a week off and providing some great Talby material. I was not here to experience this story but my wife was and she says it is one of her "favorite" memories from Grove City. So read on and see what Talby has in store for you today...
I want to thank Jay for letting me make a guest appearance on the Man Cave blog because I truly can see this blog going places!
In light of a recent purchase of mine I will be writing about Talby's incredible musical ability and his headlamp. There is a connection… I promise.
Many of you know, (and some of you may not ) that Talby is a very good guitar player. Recently, I have made it a goal of mine to pick up and learn the guitar. In learning, I recently went out and bought a guitar. During the process of purchasing a guitar I referenced a true guitar connoisseur… Talby. I must say that he has been a big help in this whole process, so I start this story with a minute of thanks for his help.
First, Talby has a coal miner-style headlamp and, aside from it being a weird thing to own, there is nothing special about it. Except for the way that he uses it.
While in college, I had the opportunity to go on mission trips to Guatemala with Talby and other friends. Talby led worship for many of our pre-trip meetings and devotion time in Guatemala. His guitar playing abilities and vocals were such a blessing. But there was one particular night that turned an ordinary pre-trip meeting into a legendary tale. Yes, this was the night when the “Legend of the Talby Headlamp” was born.
Let me first begin by saying that, for those of you who know Talby, you know that he is quite the genius in his own mind. He has many ideas and and they are always the best. Well, Talby had one of those great ideas when he decided to “set the mood” during one of our pre-mission trip meetings. Talby decided he was going to shut off the lights and lead worship in a manner that everyone could worship in their own way and not worry about people judging them. Ahhh, “Great Idea Talby!” you say, but herein lies a great problem even for Talby. How can one read his music in the dark? Talby didn’t blink for a moment because he had A MINER STYLE HEADLAMP, OF COURSE! So there he was with a headlamp strapped to his head at the front of a classroom in the Grove City College Hall of Arts and Letters with all of the lights out and 25 of his peers attempting to worship while trying to block out the idea that he had a headlamp strapped to his head so wherever he looked a beam of light would shine.
If you ask most people, this is a genius of an idea and a great story. But there is more. A week later Andrew, Talby, and I were walking from our lower campus apartment to the classroom where we were going (about one mile) for another meeting. As we were walking up the stairs to enter the building 2 minutes before we were supposed to start the meeting that was beginning with Talby leading worship, Talby realized that he forgot the headlamp. The response of Andrew and I, "don't worry about it we will be fine without it.". Immediately Aaron fired back letting us know that we would NOT be ok without it and that the headlamp was a key part of the worship time that we did at the beginning of every meeting. Talby didn't think that there was any other way to worship. So he handed the guitar to Andrew and took off running back to the apartment.
12 minutes later Talby came running back into the room, 10 minutes late for the meeting, sweating like crazy and breathing so heavy that he couldn't even sing. But, the headlamp sure did make the worship awesome.
While you may be sitting there thinking that there is no lesson to be learned from this story, I assure you, there is. Talby teaches us that great men have great ideas… in your own mind at least. And when you have an idea, you believe in it, stick to your guns, and follow through. While other worship leaders use a standard lamp that clips to your music stand and has a swivel neck when the lights are out, Aaron teaches us that there is always a better way. And the headlamp is clearly the way to go. There is nothing better to set the mood (and get a few laughs). But, hey, when you have a great idea and promise to shut the lights off for worship you always follow through if you want to be known as the one and only Talby!
"Wearing a headlamp while leading worship...... Brilliant!"
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