Keeping Your Eye On What's Important

Yesterday afternoon, before our church service, some members of the congregation all got together to discuss a book we are reading. The book is about cultivating the spiritual disciplines - and how that discipline leads to true freedom.

One example the author used to show this was the example of musicians. Expert musicians can pick up their instrument (or sit down before it, if it's something heavier than the normal human being can lift - although I don't suppose expert musicians can be called normal human beings...I digress), have a song placed before them that they have perhaps never seen before, and play it from start to finish beautifully, gracefully, wondrously.

It's something that has always made my jaw drop. This expertise. This freedom to play whatever they want to play.

But where did the freedom come from? It came from years of discipline. I remember the first time my own teacher sat down and played something for me to hear. She hadn't seen the song in ages, and yet there it was, played perfectly by her quick and graceful hands. That grace came from years upon years of practice.

To have the freedom to do things well, to have the freedom to do what you desire to do, you must discipline yourself.

I am not there yet, both musically and spiritually. Musically I'm far behind. I began taking lessons when I was eighteen, the age when most people quit. I worked my way up from songs that were half a page - maybe twenty notes in total in the whole song. Not a lot. I can tell you, sometimes I would think of people I knew or had seen, who were my age and playing something by Beethoven or Bach, and here I was playing blurbs. When I looked at it like that, I could get pretty annoyed with myself. Why couldn't I play anything more? The reason was I was exactly where I needed to be, to train myself to be able to go to the next step, to play the next grade.

Similarly, I often find myself frustrated or annoyed at my spiritual progress. Shouldn't I be better than this by now? I mean, come on! Am I seriously struggling with my temper, losing my patience, blowing up, resenting, being angry? What is the deal?

In some ways, I should be feeling annoyed with myself. As piano takes practice and devotion, so does spiritual growth. Sometimes I fail to give God the time that I should. I fail to think upon His Word. I fail to pray when I should. This is because I am undisciplined.

Yet I also have to remember the journey. I have to keep my eye on what's important.

As a pianist, when I thought of what others could do that I couldn't, I was annoyed with myself. Frustrated at my lack of ability. Yet when I remembered what this small note and that small phrase would train me to do eventually, I took delight in every song. Every note became a step in the journey. And I love it, because the prize is worth it. The finish line is worth it.

You see, prayer and Bible reading and such are only good, are only delightful, if you keep your eye on what's important. Bible reading wouldn't be important, except that it's a path through which you can learn more about God. Prayer wouldn't be important, except that it's a tool through which you can pray to God.

The Living God has given us these things so that we can commune with Him, know Him better, and glorify Him through obedience and Christlikeness. What joy we can have when we look to the prize!

The prize is Jesus.

And Jesus is so totally worth it.