Today's Scripture Reading (October 31, 2025): 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 and psychiatrist 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 hard work. There have been some accidents, but even the accidental
discoveries have resulted from the hard work of someone in an associated area.
The results may not have been what the researcher was looking for, but they had
been diligently working to discover the nature of something, and without that
effort, the “accident” would never have occurred. Nothing good comes without
hard work. If it is easy, it is evil. We all need to stay away from easy.
So, my question is this: why does the church
often seem to want to take the easy path? I mean, we even have 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 and the concept
of salvation, 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.
One example of this might be in our music. I
grew up in a church that had a thing called “Special Music.” I am not trying to
be mean. From my childhood, I had been included in the church’s “Special Music,”
but often, there was very little that was special about the music in the
church. The people who failed at karaoke frequently seemed to be the ones who
came to the church to sing the special music. The rule for the church was
participation. Anyone who wanted to participate – could, no matter what their
skill level might have been. I remember one lady who got up in church to sing,
and often, the song was described as something that “God had given to her.” My
reaction was admittedly not very charitable. It was something like “Please
don’t blame God for this.”
Chronicles says that those who led worship
and sang before the people were “trained and skilled.” Let me translate that:
they worked hard at their craft and had the ability to play the music of the
day. Not everyone could apply. It had been hard, but they were ready to reap
the results. I know the pushback. Not every church has trained musicians. But
the problem is that we have developed a culture where we believe the church is
the place for those who cannot sing to come without preparation and perform for
us. Our mantra is often that the music is good enough for the church. But the
reality is that it isn’t. It is the easy path. And easy is evil.
We can’t all have the top musicians in our
churches. But we need to raise the bar regarding our expectations. At the very
least, we need to have people who desire to work on developing the musical
talent inside them. Our sacrifice of worship needs to be just that, something
that has cost us something. The first time I led worship, a pastor handed me a
list of songs and told me that I was going to be the evening’s worship leader.
I was pretty sure he was wrong, but he was insistent. The only thing I could do
was work hard to try to figure this music thing out. It was not easy. But
anything worth doing seldom is. And I still believe we need to stay away from
easy.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
1 Chronicles 26
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