If the Music Isn't Right, No One Hears the Words

Many years ago, in the church I then served, the very talented choir was singing the Sunday morning anthem, a beautiful arrangement of “Tell Me the Story of Jesus.”  It was beautiful, until something happened.  The composer of that anthem had decided to change the key of the song not far from the end.  The choir would sing “love paid the ransom for me,” hold the last note of that phrase and carry it over as the first note of the final section, “Tell me the story of Jesus…”  Great idea, had it happened.  The instruments changed key.  The choir didn’t.  So, for the rest of the song, the instruments and the choir were at musical odds with each other.  It was ugly.  Our choir director, Jim Needham, tried to end everyone’s suffering by cutting the choir off.  He signaled a cutoff several times.  They wouldn’t stop.  It was a harmonic train wreck no one could prevent.  I think that was the moment Jim first heard  a call to the mission field.  No one went home talking about the words of the anthem that day.  They probably remembered nothing about my sermon. The story of Jesus was drowned out by the  terrible dissonance of that musical civil war.  

choir was singing the Sunday morning anthem, a beautiful arrangement of

If the music of your life and mine isn’t right, if our lives are not in harmony with the faith we profess, then, no matter how beautiful or powerful the words of witness we want to share, no one will hear them.  The conflict between what we preach all day and what we try to share in moments of witness will drown out the story of Jesus. 

Master the music of the life you live each day, then a lost world will be eager to hear the words that can guide them to the Giver of a life that really sings.  

I'm Counting Your Blessings

I’m Counting Your Blessings

On Christmas Day of 1988, our Elizabeth was four years old and had a three-month-old baby brother, Josh.  This was the first year that Santa brought gifts for more than one child to our home.  Josh wasn’t too impressed with his Christmas goodies.  A three-month-old is too busy eating and sleeping to worry about much else.  But when Elizabeth came into the living room to see the Christmas gifts, she ran straight for the toys that Santa had brought to her baby brother.  Look at this!  Look at this!  I would like one of these!  Finally, wanting to redirect Elizabeth’s yuletide attention, we asked, “And what did Santa Claus bring you?”  She pointed over her shoulder without even turning her head and said, “That stuff over there.” 

          Some of us never experience happiness because everyone else’s blessings look so much better than our own.  We count their blessings and envy them instead of seeing God’s goodness at work in our own lives and praising Him.  Proverbs warns us about counting someone else’s blessings. 

(Proverbs 14:30) A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

          Wanting someone else’s life will destroy your life.  God wants you to see your blessings.  Like the Father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son who pleads with his jealous older son to come in and join the celebration of his brother’s return, God pleads with you to stop being jealous of the love He’s shown another one of His children and realize that He loves you too. 

(Luke 15:31) 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

          As long as you count someone else’s blessings, you have nothing.  When you see your own, you have everything. 

This story is included in my book, The Stories of My Life, a collection of more than 200 life experiences that taught me about the art of living.  You can find the book at Amazon.com and at St. Andrews Baptist Church in Columbia, SC.