"Pray to Play" - "Play to Pray"
Matt Messner reminded me of an old habit I had in college. I would practice bass a lot everyday and if you looked at my schedule it may appear that playing bass was an idol of some sort because of the time that I spent at it. It probably could have easily become a god to me but I put a couple things into perspective. I had a little sign on my bass case that read "Pray to Play" and "Play to Pray.""Pray to Play" reminded me to thank God for music, for the chance to make music, for talents, for talented people to play with, for a beautiful instrument, and for every time that I had to pick it up. It reminded me that without Jesus I would have nothing...or at least that everything I had would mean nothing. Thanking God first kept me humble.
"Play to Play" reminded that what I was doing in the practice room or in jazz band was a form of worship for me. When I was playing in orchestra it spoke to God. It was a prayer of some kind. And when I was playing for the Lord it inspired me to play better. I was reminded who was in the audience.
What it did for me was to make the secular sacred. It's all in the attitude of my heart. I had holy moments playing 'Round Midnight in bars and performing Mozart in concert halls.
What other areas of my life do I do that? How do you do that? In what ways have you made the secular sacred?
posted by Tim Oas @ 11:05 PM
1 Comments:
This is good.
I guess I never really thought about it this way... I mean, I know that being able to play the guitar (and being able to play it well), having... what, three guitars to practice it, having a great teacher to teach and challenge me, and on top of all of that, experiencing the awesome oppurtunity of getting to share my passion as well as getting to lead people into a time of worship with their divine creator was all a gift from God... but I never really thought about that second saying.
(and i'm thinking I should make one of these, even though I blog on myspace...hmm.)
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