It finally happened. I’ve been dreading the day for years but it was inevitable. I had my first senior moment.

A few weeks ago I was playing an intermediate hymn in sacrament meeting and lost track of which verse we were on. I thought that the hymn had been completed, so I hit the cancel button as I always do at the end of the hymn. Unfortunately, while I was ready to stop, the congregation was not. I had stopped one verse too early.

I’ve had many embarrassing moments as an organist. I’ve had a hymnal fall on the keyboard during a meeting while the organ had a full registration drawn (the effect was interesting, to say the least). I’ve also played the wrong hymn, started in the wrong key, accidentally hit a combination piston when I didn’t intend to, and so forth. Fortunately, I hadn’t had an embarrassing moment at the organ in a long, long, time. All good things must come to an end.

After I figured out what had happened, I desperately looked for a way to quickly fix the problem. It seemed like all hope was lost, until I saw my savior: The “R” piston. In this case, “R” stands for “Recall”. This piston returns the organ to the state it was in before you had a problem. I quickly pushed it and the organ was once again ready to play. I had been saved.

Just then, the Spirit reminded me of an eternal truth and whispered that this story would be a great entry for this blog. Each of us has an “R” piston.

Like the organ, our lives are complicated. It’s easy to make mistakes. Some of our mistakes are serious, most are not. For most mistakes, the solution is to practice. For others, you need the “R” piston. In this case, “R” means repentance.

The ability to repent, that free gift of God that was wrought under the most awful of circumstances, allows us to change. If we put our trust in God, he embraces us and guides us every step of the way. He will do whatever is necessary to gently lift us out of the situation we have made for ourselves and put us in a much better one that he has made for us. All we have to do is be willing to press the “R” piston.

The “R” piston is the one of the most valuable things we have.  Let’s use it when needed.