At my church, we often do Special Music performances from members of the church before the sermon begins to set the mood for the sermon. I usually sing touching songs or play a number on my trumpet when I perform for this. However, one thing I always found weird about our special music was that no one claps afterwards. At first it was strange, but I began to get used to it and like it. Clapping shows you appreciate it, but saying "amen" afterwards shows you truly touched someone. And clapping puts the focus on you.
I love my God-given talent of singing. It's one of my favorite things to do and I cannot think of a better way to glorify God than to use that talent to touch other people. Because we don't clap and say "amen" instead, it shows that we acknowledge God as the source of such beautiful music and we thank Him for granting someone with such a wonderful gift. We have other members who perform amazing acapella numbers, group harmonies, and other instrumentalists such as flutists and pianists.
When we show other people what wonderful gifts God has blessed us with, we need to make sure we understand where those gifts come from and that those you are performing for understand this as well. In one of my favorite movies, The Greatest Game Ever Played, Shia LaBeouf's character, Francis, comments on an opera singer's voice having produced music sounding like it came from somewhere else and that's how he wants his golf game to be.
Now I play golf and sing, so this really hits home for me. Every once in a while, I will be singing in choir or just in my car and can all of the sudden start singing better than I ever could have imagined. And it sounds like it's coming from somewhere else - not my voice! It's one of the coolest things I have ever had happen to me. And it's happened during golf, too. When I hit that perfect drive or nail that forty foot putt, I know that sort of shot is expertise far beyond my years so it must come from something else. Some people may attribute this to luck, but luck has to come from somewhere too! And coincidences must be attributed to something as well.
These examples illustrate the need to rely on God, as well. We cannot do anything without God. We are not to rely on ourselves. As Matthew 19:26 states: With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. There is nothing in this world you cannot accomplish with God on your side. Whether it is singing with a Godly voice, or making a difficult putt, or David defeating Goliath, as long as we trust in God, we can accomplish anything.
Now let me give you an example from the other side of the spectrum: at my college, we read the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It was a touching story of how a broke mountain climber whose sister died of epilepsy wanted to climb K2 to place her necklace on the mountain as a symbolic thing to him. But he got caught in a storm and almost died but was nursed back to health by village-men and he swore to repay them via their education system. And he set out and built all these schools in the Middle East/K2 region and helping them overcome their constant oppression and lack of education.
It was truly inspirational! While reading this, I felt I could do something like this to. The author, Greg Mortenson, even came to our school to talk about his experiences and what we could do to help. The basketball arena was packed to the brim and then some. I remember thinking, "how awesome would it be if all these 2,000+ people in this stadium saw this great role model and then heard he attributed his success and gifts to God. What a wonderful testimony that would be! Alas, Mortenson was an atheist.
But as if God Himself agreed with me that Mortenson should give God the glory for his successes, Mortenson was discredited on national television! 60 minutes found out that he was a scam who didn't do half of what he said he did. He just took credit for it. He was also found to have been with Al Qaeda, having taken pictures holding machine guns and wearing a turban with them. It pretty much destroyed all Mortenson had made himself to be.
God wants us to be successful in our endeavors, but He does not want us to forget who gave us the ability to be successful. He just wants credit for what He's done. Wouldn't you if you put in all that hard work?
1 Corinthians 10:31 says that "so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Do it ALL for the GLORY of God.
Just love God and glorify Him and His name...He is most certainly worth it.
God Bless!
ChristianKid
No comments:
Post a Comment