Posts




Sunday, September 30, 2012

Being Beethoven

"How do I know God's will?" she asked me.
"How can I be sure I am doing what He wants me to do?"
Good question.

Anything we do, God Himself can do better, so what, after all, does God want from us?
And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.--Micah 6:8

Yes, yes, I know that. But what to DO?
God gives us stuff to do not because He needs us to get it done for Him, but because He wants us to seek Him in it.

Seek Him first, last, and always...then do what seems right until we can't do it any more.

Don't concentrate on the result. 
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.--Isaiah 55:9

Do what God gives us to do because He gave it.  
He manages the result.
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.--1Corinthians 3:61
We cultivate devotion to God.  He brings in the harvest.

Beethoven was nearly deaf when he composed his ninth symphony.  He never heard it, but he wrote it, and conducted it, with such genius and fervor that almost everyone recognizes its Ode to Joy:

God asks us, too, to play the notes even when we can't hear the music.
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.  I will sing and make music.  Awake, my soul.  Awake, harp and lyre.  I will awaken the dawn.--Psalm 57:71
Play on, and our love for God becomes our true song.

8 comments:

  1. "God asks us, too, to play the notes even when we can't hear the music." Just love that line. Thank you for this reflection!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want to live in this confidence. I can see and feel confidence in these words.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Play the notes even when we can't hear the music. That is a great line. Not hearing the music requires faith....guess that's what God had in mind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This reminds me of what I read in the Streams in the Desert a few days ago, the story of Paganini, the great violinist. He discovered just as he was going to play in a concert that his violin was stolen and he had to use a second hand violin. He said: "I will show you that the music is not in the instrument but in the soul." And how he played! We too are called to play the music in our souls, no matter the challenges, the conditions, the testings we face! Patsy from
    HeARTworks and
    papemelroti

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good way of teaching and touching. Doing what we are called to do, even if it doesn't fit into our lives as perfectly as we would expect it to be. Trusting HIM for the results is what is needed, NOT just trusting ourselves and our physical/spiritual skillful expectations. And Beethoven has always been a good example.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great parallel! It makes me feel nervous and full of purpose.

    ReplyDelete