So at my percussion lesson the other day, the instructor drew my attention to the fact that when playing the vibes (or any keyboard instrument, for that matter), I wait to move until the last minute. I have three beats to move to the next note, but I wait until the “and” of four. Yes, I am working on that. The biggest problem with that is when waiting until the last minute, it’s a lot easier to miss a note.
I was actually still in my lesson when I was figuring out how that fact fits into my life. I’ve been noticing more and more metaphors of little things that relate to my faith life, and I was looking for one to do with this. So here ya go.
When we wait to make a decision, when we wait until the last minute, it is a whole lot easier to make a wrong one. Wrong notes are a whole lot easier to hit than the correct one. Way more CONVENIENT (there’s a lot more wrong notes on a keyboard). Like, if you feel like you should help a neighbor who is having trouble but you wait until their trouble engulfs them? (Dramatic, but you get my point.) Or, you feel God is calling you to a conference or even on summer project or other missions project, but you wait until the last deadline and then at the last minute decide you might as well wait until next year, so you might as well not try to go this year—it would be impossible by now anyway. WRONG NOTE. God can make all things happen. Yes, it is more convenient if you register right away and have TIME to raise money or whatever you need to do, but it can still be done whenever you decide to go. It just takes more effort.
Which leads me to wrong note number two: laziness. “Laziness” is known as the art of doing nothing, also relating to the term “procrastination,” or, putting off until the last minute. I have been reading a book by Becky Tirabassi, “Let God Talk to You,” and it talks about having “God Talks,” what I call my quiet times. It requires EFFORT to set aside time in the day to seek God’s word and pray. A reason people may feel dissonance in their lives is because they are missing a sharp or a flat—it takes EFFORT to seek God and lift up everything to him in prayer (hitting a right note).
Point number three (because I like lists of odd numbers): What are you putting first? If you are building your life around relationships or grades, you are changing the key where it shouldn’t be changing, and then you are inevitably going to miss a ton of notes when things aren’t sounding how they should be. But putting God first—that’s like playing a keyboard where the keys light up where you are supposed to hit them before you do, so that you KNOW what you’re supposed to be doing. This is the biggest struggle I have seen in me and in the lives of others around me. Satan’s always trying to change our keys or start playing a minor mode when it’s supposed to be major—he urges us to keep hitting wrong notes. I practiced moving my hands to the next note with two beats to spare—my note-missing was dramatically decreased.
It takes practice to stop hitting wrong notes, but I encourage you to try it. This blog kind of turned into a random rant, like so many of my others, and I thank you for letting me use music terminology (I was, after all, launching off of something that happened at a LESSON). As I spend hours a day in a practice room, I also have begun to set aside time for God, so that I can prefect my relationship with him, as well. Will you?
Anna E. Meyer 