Giving your Heart in Making Music

Music is super powerful, when you let it be. If you play too carefully, worry about hitting every note, not trusting enough to take any risks… it becomes an objective task rather than an art. When it’s only a brain task and not a heart task, it’s only halfway there.

In Wind Symphony on Wednesday, Dr. J gave us one of his infamous philosophical speeches about the true significance of making music together from the soul. This one sparked something in me.

Give of yourself. You have to give everything, be vulnerable, let it out, to have the capacity to experience greatness. When you try your best to do everything right, to hit every note and rhythm, even every crescendo and articulation and breath, but put no feeling behind it, it can only go so far. You’re holding back the passion, the emotion. Why? Maybe if you’re afraid. This is like love. If you are afraid of getting hurt and you don’t get too close to the other person, you don’t open up too far, or you don’t commit…you don’t share your true self… then you won’t get hurt. Your heart is guarded. But you will also never experience the depth of true love that comes when you open up and share your heart, your imperfections and weaknesses as well as your joys and strengths. Then you can truly be close to someone’s spirit.

Similarly with music, you can overthink your part and work really hard to play everything perfectly, or you can trust yourself that you know the part (after much prior preparation, of course ;) and let your heart sing through the music. It’s scary sometimes! You might make a mistake, you are taking that risk, BUT you can be truly expressive, letting your emotions and inner music sing through the line of music. When everybody joins in this together, jumps on in and gives it everything they’ve got, spiritually and emotionally and mentally and physically, beauty happens. Magical moments happen. I know it sounds cliché, but think about it – if half the band is giving their best and going for it, but the other half is slacking or playing quietly and carefully to avoid any mistake, the music will sound that way. If the whole band is working together, as a team, trusting each other, listening at a heightened level and letting the music and atmosphere drive the song, it is amazing.

Truly amazing. This message rings true in my life, especially as I remember all 6 of our concerts in Italy last year. Think about any team you’ve been a part of that you truly loved and put your time and heart into – volleyball, marching band, camp, - when the team gave it all they had and worked together above everything, the team above the individual, it was powerful, right?! There was a true bond there!

So, since this truth awakens my spirit, I knew there was an even deeper truth about humanity in this beautiful idea.

It makes perfect sense.

I can struggle and strive through my life, trying to do everything right and carefully coloring inside the lines and working, working, working to achieve greatness and beauty… but through my own head and willpower, I can never reach true perfection, true beauty. Or the love example – if I hold back to protect myself from every risk, I’ll never experience the grand sight of achieving the goal – climbing the mountain, performing my best, overcoming the unknown, feeling true love and majesty.

Let go. Don’t try to reach perfection on your own. You’ll get burnt out and still feel stuck. Let go of trying so hard. Have you ever felt this way? Like life is gray and good, … good enough… but never great? Like you’re not really opening up yourself and looking at what you find, because you’re afraid of a hurt or mistake or weakness that might show up? Or an emptiness that you don’t know how to fill?

- Trust yourself, give up, jump in! Give of yourself, give your EVERYTHING and let your heart sing. How do you do this?

> > > This is the One crucial point Dr. J failed to mention.

> > > In life, we can’t find this by our own power. We all have some brokenness in our lives. We try so hard to do what’s right, but are still left missing something. We need to let go and let the song sing through us. Let the Healer heal us.

God fills this emptiness. God is the Creator of the Universe and He made us for Him, because He loves us so much. Humans messed up and missed the mark of perfection. We fell down. But because God loves us soooo much, He sent us Jesus. God is the prime example of this concept – He completely gave of Himself, as His Son Jesus (God in human form), to be a mortal man to come and heal His people – He did miracles, cured diseases, loved the “unlovable” people in society… and then ultimately, Love is Sacrifice. We can truly love others when we open up our hearts to them and give of ourselves for the sake of the other person. Jesus saw that we humans couldn’t ever achieve perfect living on our own, and therefore we fell short of God’s true and eternal life for us. But He gave His life as a literal sacrifice, died on the cross for ALL of humanity’s brokenness and mistakes and sins and bad decisions and empty longing that we try to fill with everything else besides God… and he cancelled all of them!! Forever! When Jesus rose again, He guaranteed eternal life for all those who believe in Him! He made us for Him, we are meant to be friends with God, so when we don’t have Him in our lives, we feel empty, like something’s missing. But He loves us soooo much and through Christ’s payment, forgives us and restores us to His righteousness (because Christ was the only perfect man and He died in our place, the death we deserved for our screw-ups, He gave us His righteousness, His right-ness, so we are redeemed, set free, made new, made PERFECT in God’s sight!) We still sin, but Christ forgives us and lives in us now, if we just believe.

Now Dr. J’s message comes in again. We should strive to do our best and follow God’s commands and laws to honor Him, but we’ll never be able to follow them all perfectly in this life. (… like playing every note and rhythm perfectly and in tune every time…)

- Since Christ died for all our sins, failures, uncompleted goals, hurts, heartbreaks, sickness, death, bad decisions, hurtful actions, worries, fears… “good enough…”… why do we hold sooo tightly to following rules for the sake of earning our success?

- Why do we stay closed up and relying on our own power when we have the availability of GOD’S Power waiting right here for us to take part in?! 

All you need to do is surrender. Give of yourself. Let go. Jump in. Give your everything for the greater purpose. For the sake of the whole band. For Christ.

When we let go and admit that we can’t do it all on our own, but we believe Jesus Christ took our place and saved us, He will fill us. And let me tell ya’, it’s AMAZING. It’s like nothing else. Once you’re filled with our LOVING PERFECT GGGOOODDD, you’ll never be the same again, in the best possible way. You are filled with an inner joy and peace and LOVE that is unexplainable, because the pressure is off! We don’t have to worry about doing everything perfectly, but try our best and then just embrace our imperfection and claim God’s GRACE and COMPLETENESS to fill in the gaps and make our lives beautiful!!!

So like in music, give your ALL to Jesus and let Him sing through you. You think you can find this freedom and BEAUTY fully without Jesus? Try – you might feel some satisfaction, because all of God’s creation (the whole world) reflects His character. (Just like if you wrote a song, it would probably have some characteristic of you as a person, right?) Think beautiful sunsets, perfect musical harmonies, a baby being born…totally reflections of God’s majesty. Heck to the yes! P.S. Why is music so powerful? Why can we experience this beauty in Wind Symphony concerts even if we’re not all acknowledging that God is the true source of this beauty?

BECAUSE MUSIC WAS ORIGINALLY INTENDED TO BRING GLORY TO GOD. It is, by nature, Heavenly!! Music was CREATED so angels and people could worship God’s Great Name. Pretty Spectacular stuff.  Let go and let God fill you and sing through your life. It’s freedom, beauty, and glorious music-making. Life is worth it. Meaningful. Today and forever.  Thank you, Dr. J. And Dr. JESUS!

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“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” – 1 John 3:16

“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” – 1 Corinthians 13:2

“Cause if you never leave home, never let go

You’ll never make it to the great unknown

till you Keep your eyes open, my love

So show me your fire, show me your heart

You know I’ll never let you fall apart if you

Keep your eyes open, my love

Just past the circumstance

The first light, a second chance

No child could ever dance the way you do,

oh Tear down the prison walls Don’t start the curtain call

Your chains will never fall until you do”

- Needtobreathe lyrics “Keep Your Eyes Open”

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” – Ephesians 5:1-2

“If I sing but don't have love

I waste my breath with every song

I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise

If I speak with a silver tongue

Convince a crowd but don't have love

I leave a bitter taste with every word I say

So let my life be the proof, The proof of Your love

Let my love look like You and what You're made of

How You lived, how You died Love is sacrifice

So let my life be the proof, The proof of Your love

When it's all said and done

When we sing our final song

Only love remains Only love remains”

- For King & Country lyrics “The Proof of Your Love”

“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” – Romans 12:16

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” – Romans 12:1