I had a piano teacher once who was the sweetest little old lady one could ever meet. She loved me and I loved her… until one day I showed up late, I was unprepared, I forgot my books, and I was sputtering out a million different excuses for all of the above.
My sister ate my books…
My mom drove so slow…
My volleyball game went extra long…
My dad didn’t remind me…
Tiny little elves put invisible blinders on my eyes and I was unable to see the ginormous piano in our living room all week long. I mean, how could I practice if there wasn’t a piano to practice on?
Gently she silenced me, but firmly she warned me to not let it happen again. Then she whipped out a pointy pen that resembled a TV-like antenna (remember those?), and instructed me to sit down and get my fingers moving. My consequence would be scales for the entire lesson. Ugh.
We may not want to hear it, or think about it, and we certainly don’t like it, but at various points in life we need to be corrected. We all need to be lovingly reminded and strongly advised to take a different approach, to rethink a decision, to stop with the excuses, and simply do the work required – no matter the cost.
The type of Christians God needs representing His Kingdom are those who are willing to show up on time, those who are willing to show up prepared, and those who are willing to ditch the excuses and get their hands moving.
I sure hated scales, but I could have never known that all that scale work would lead my fingers to stumble upon songwriting – one of my greatest life passions.
God knows that our seasons of preparation are going to be what lead us to places that will birth our deepest passions, all for the furtherance of the Kingdom.
But we must show up and do the work. It ain’t pretty, but He’s calling us to ditch the excuses and get our hands moving.
“You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.” -Romans 2:3-4
