An Instrument of Worship

As a musician, I have a deep appreciation for other musicians and I’m especially partial to guitar players. The other night, I saw one of the most talented guitar players I’ve seen in a long time – and this guy is just finishing high school! He did one solo performance on a classical guitar and later performed with a rock band on the electric guitar. It just blew me away how he could play so many notes so quickly and clearly, yet make each one truly musical with life and tone.

Most of the time, our musical instruments sit idle, waiting for someone to play them. They were created for the exclusive purpose of making music, and some, like my acoustic guitar, actually improve their tone the more frequently they are played. But not everyone can play every instrument. If I were to try to play the violin, I would expect you to run for cover and beg me to stop – I would be creating noise, not music. And the quality of the musician is more important than the instrument.

I can remember when I was in high school and I went with a friend who was shopping for an electric guitar. The local music store had a wide variety of guitars for sale, ranging from $100 for a no-name brand to over $2,000 for a high-end Fender. My friend was just learning to play, but his parents had said he could spend up to $750 for his first guitar. The salesman at the store knew a lot about guitars and he also played and gave lessons. In my opinion, he was a very good salesman because his first question was not about price but about ability and ambition. He asked my friend what music style he liked or wanted to play, and whether he planned to become a full-time musician or just a casual player. My friend was like me and just wanted to learn to play well enough to jam with friends and entertain himself. So the salesman grabbed a guitar priced around $175 made by a company I’d never heard of before. He quickly tuned it, plugged it into an amplifier and started to play. He made that cheap guitar sound amazing! After a few minutes, he took down a mid-range Fender priced around $500 and to our ears, it sounded pretty much the same. He even pulled down a high end Gibson, and again, there was not much difference that we could tell. After playing the Gibson, he went back to $175 guitar and played it some more. They all sounded great. But when my friend and I tried each one in turn, they didn’t sound as great. Even when I played that Gibson, I couldn’t make it sound as good as the salesman made that $175 guitar sound. So my friend ended up buying that $175 guitar and was very satisfied with his purchase. I give that salesman a lot of credit – he could have easily sold us a guitar priced much more and made a bigger commission, but instead he demonstrated how a talented musician can make beautiful music even with a mediocre instrument.

God has created us all to be His instruments on earth. Not just to make music, but to be His hands, His feet – to be His ambassadors and demonstrate His love to the world. We may think we are ill-equipped to do this work. But like that cheap guitar, if we allow our supremely talented God to use us – control us, direct us, support us - the results can be beautiful.

At the same time, if we allow others to try to use us (or we try to take control), the results are not so beautiful. Think about the numerous examples of people who have allowed greed, ambition, fame, power, pleasure, insecurity, drugs, alcohol, or other influences to control their lives. Even when I reflect on my own life – the times when I tried to take control and go my own way – those are the times when my life wasn’t the best it could be.

Before I play my guitar, I need to make sure it is still in tune. If it’s not in tune, no matter how well I play, it’s not going to sound right. We are the same way. We need to make sure we are “in tune” with what God wants us to do. If we’re not, and we try to let God work through us, the results won’t be as good as they could be.

So as you go about your week, ask yourself two questions. Am I going to allow God to use His instrument this week? Am I in tune with what He wants me to do?

Jac

“If we are the Body, why aren’t His arms reaching,
why aren’t His hands healing, why aren’t His words teaching?
If we are the Body, why aren’t His feet going,
why is His love not showing them there is a Way?”
Casting Crowns

Science, Music, and God

I’m one of those rare exceptions to the rule when it comes to science and God. The more I learn about creation through science, the closer I am drawn to our Creator. Throughout my life, whenever I have learned something really interesting about our universe, my response has been “OK God, that’s pretty cool.” While science offers up explanations about “how” things work, it doesn’t answer the “why” questions.

Music is a great example. Physics explains how music works by measuring the frequency of vibrations. Middle C on a piano has a frequency of 261.626 Hz. Math can also tell us how different notes combine together to form chords. But science can’t explain why we like music. It can’t explain why some music makes us feel happy, and other music makes us feel sad. Evolution can’t explain why we developed this appreciation for music and our drive to create music. Even songbirds make music, and science will tell us they developed this for attracting mates, but why do songbirds use combinations of notes that sound musical? Why not just a single note or two or three random notes? Why do dairy cows produce more milk if classical music is played?

I found a video on youtube that is part of a science series taken from the World Science Festival in 2009. This series is about “Notes and Neurons” and the scientists are discussing theories about our reaction to melody and rhythm, and whether it is hard-wired into our brains or part of our cultural experience. A musician named Bobby McFerrin shows how universal this appreciation for music is. Watch and listen to this clip, and hum along if you can.

Remember, this is a “science” festival, not a music festival. The audience is made up of other scientists and science enthusiasts, and yet they somehow intuitively know what that next note should be in the scale. I’m sure most of them don’t know what the pentatonic scale is by name, but they know the sounds of the notes. And as Bobby indicates, he does this all over the world with the same result. The implication is that our appreciation of music is hard-wired into our brains. But they don’t really explain why it is hard wired. If you want to hear the whole presentation you can go to http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/video/notes-neurons-full

“That’s pretty cool, God. Show me more.”

Jac