Sunday, 11 January 2009
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To be more than ordinary.
For the past few days, I've found myself reading Milton's Paradise Lost while listening to baroque choral music by composers like Henry Purcell and Manuel Cordoso. As I read and listen to these masterpieces I find myself humbled at their creator's talents. Normal men, as ordinary as myself, yet men who developed their talents and used them to pay homage to the God that gave them.
I love to imagine as I listen to Cordoso's and Monteverdi's music that they constructed the pieces for God. I wonder what he must think each time he hears them, or when we read sonnets written by John Donne, the works of C.S. Lewis or Tolkein?
I'd like to think each person is special and capable of doing great things, but I doubt it. Unless we're all lazy, most of us seems destined to being special in subtle or anonymous ways. As Despair, Inc says about individuality: "Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else." It's true...how many great individuals on the scale of Bach and Shakespeare can the world really have?
Or is it laziness? Are we allowing ourselves to be distracted by all the modern conveniences and entertainments? Where are the masterpiece compositions and the epic stories and poems, the great ones that point to Jesus? Is their creation left to the authors of centuries past? Where are the great church reformers like Luther and Whitefield, or the political ones such as Wilberforce?
Perhaps our mass production of everything means that dribble and foppery is being propagated as much as the great. Would Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress find such praise and renown if it were published today? Would the Bible? I like to think they would, that true genius will stand out no matter what the era. And if my assumption is true, it means that each of us does have a chance at becoming the next Wilberforce, Cordoso, or Milton. I just think it takes more initiative and endurance than many of us are used to. It must, to turn the normal into the great.
I realized something today which spawned this rather cynical essay, that I'm more of a pre-Crucifiction sort of Christian. A ways back in reading the Gospels and Acts, I was struck at the differences in the disciples prior to the crucifiction/resurrection and after. Something big had happened to them, and their experience changed who they were. I'd love to be a post-Crucifiction Christian, and I know if I ask God he'll help...but I don't want a traumatic conversion. Yet if I continue to be lazy and distracted, I'll never do anything.
Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace. Romans 6:13-14, NLT
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Comments (8)
truly... this is definitely a post worthy of reading... not that your other ones are not... but... man...
Well written and thought. Great works of writing or music may very well never be discovered or take untold decades. Money drives our world and publishers need a return on investment. Its not the quality or reasoning or depth of a work that makes it accessable in todays world. Its the marketablility. How sad. Great post.
I am one of those people who believes that we are not all called to do huge deeds, but to do small deeds with great love (I can't remember who I'm paraphrasing). I believe that soothing a crying child in the church's children's ministry is worth as much to God as penning a masterpiece, if it is done with His love.
I used to be obsessed with making my mark on history, and sometimes I still worry about it. But God cares about my heart more than anything. Perhaps He will let me do something that is seen by many, but perhaps He will call me to do something even greater-greater because it is only seen by Him.
In the end, I want to wash feet and give love, first to Him and then to His world. If I am yielded to Christ, I will do what I am meant to do. Whether I am standing in front of a king or a bum, there's no matter. It's the love that counts.
great post
@Pickwick12 - I agree...I don't care if my name is remembered, but I'd like to think I'd made a great impact nonetheless. Think of the Butterfly Effect: that a butterfly flapping its wings in California causes a tsunami in Japan. No one knows that the tsunami was caused by the slightest of breezes, and I'd like to get to Heaven some day and learn I was a butterfly. As you said...who knows what impact your hour spent with a crying child created? Thanks for the recommendation. (I just re-read that butterfly-sentence and I think I'm going to have to use that.)
@leadworshipper82@revelife - Thank you so much. I thought the post a bit disjunct and rambling, so I appreciate your words.
@Cygnus33 - My mom also read your post, and she liked it a lot
Amazing--I was just thinking before reading this entry how I'm so blessed oftentimes through reading your talent. When I stop to compare myself--and the work I must do to even dare attempt something of this caliber--I find myself floundering in a sea of worthless self-thoughts. But when I take a moment to feel the Lord's heart--then it becomes effortless--my response to your entry. For I know you have a seed of greatness in you... It is a precious seed. And so do any who call themselves followers of the Cross--for it is Christ in us the hope of glory... To cultivate it, water it and allow it to come forth...well you yourself know what it takes for a plant to grow healthy and strong...Light, time, attention, good soil, water.... The joke in our home goes something like this we have 2 dogs, 1 bird, a fish tank and house plants... Everything living needs attention. The dogs crave it, my bird chatters incessantly when we come home, the fish swim to the top of the tank thankful for food when I walk in the room, well then there's the house plants... they turn weird colors as if to say, "Can't you take a hint--open the blinds--I'm starving for sunlight...." You know how much work it is to take care of living things???? But oh the pay offs, my dogs return the affection, the fish keep my 20 month old grandson happy as he goes to sleep in their presence, and even my plant was the last living thing left to remind me of my grandmother .... So bottom line--greatness is a gift to be cultivated--but it comes forth best in the environment of TLC! We need to be motivated by love to write, compose, build, paint, count beans... all to the glory of God!!!!
Yes I love this post! This subject is often on my mind and seems to be a constant area to encourage people in their everyday lives. Thanks.
On work....
"A person, even a pastor or missionary, may be doing 'spiritual' work without being sanctified. Meanwhile, a homemaker may prepare meals for her family as a true act of devotion to God. A farmer can milk his cows as an act of worship. The place of work is a place for worship." ---Darrow Miller