Today’s Scripture Reading (September
26, 2013): 1 Chronicles 25
“All good is
hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating and mediocrity is easy. Stay
away from easy.” The quote is from author Scott Alexander, and I am convinced
that he is right. There has been no human endeavor worth achieving that has not
been the result of some hard work. There have been some accidents, but even the
accidental discoveries of our culture have been the result of some hard work in
an area. The results may not have been what the researcher was looking for, but
they had been working hard in a specific area, and without that work the
“accident” would have never occurred. Nothing that is good comes without hard
work. If it is easy, it is evil. Stay away from easy.
So my
question is this – why does the church often seem to want to take the path that
is easy? I mean, we even have a verse – a verse that happens to come from the
very mouth of Jesus. He said “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is
the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter
through it” (Matthew 7:13.) We apply this verse to our theology, but we
miss it in almost all of the other things that we do. It is as if our theology
stands alone and does not affect how we live our lives and how we conduct the
business of the church.
Maybe one
example of this is in our music. I grew up in a church that had a thing called
“Special Music.” And I am not trying to be mean, but often there was very
little that was special about the music in the church. The people who failed at
karaoke often seemed to be the ones that came to the church to sing the special
music. The rule for the church was participation. Anyone who wanted to
participate – could, not matter what their skill level.
That is not
what this verse says. This verse says that those that led worship were “trained
and skilled.” Let me translate that – they worked hard at their art and they
had an innate ability to play music. Not everyone could apply. It had been
hard, but they were ready reap the results. I know the pushback. Not every
church has trained musicians, I get that. But the problem is that we have
developed culture where we believe that the church is the place where those who
cannot sing come with no preparation and they play and sing for us. Our mantra
is that it is good enough for the church. But the reality is that it isn’t.
What is really is is easy. And easy is evil.
We can’t all
have the top musicians in our churches, I get that. But I think we need to
raise the bar in regard to our expectations. At the very least, we need to have
people that are desiring to work at developing that musical talent that is inside
of them. The first time I led worship a pastor simply handed me a list of songs
and told me that I was going to be the worship leader. I was pretty sure he was
wrong, but he was insistent. And so the only thing I could do was work hard to
try and figure this music thing out. It was not easy. But anything worth doing
seldom is. Stay away from easy.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles
26
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