Excellent Music, Inadequate Venues
Posted: Tuesday, February 12, 2008
by Steve Radford
As the father of a musician, I have had the privilege of watching and listening to new songs being written. It's fascinating to witness the creative process. One musical phrase may be played, tweaked, replayed and tweaked a hundred times before it is judged acceptable. Then the next line and the next until one instrument is more or less completed. Then another instrument is layered on in the same fashion. By the time the song is complete, you have an appreciation of the piece that no one listening to the finished work will ever feel.
So a song that has intricate guitar riffs and emotionally charged vocals sounds like just another loud, rock song. You watch people's reactions and you can tell they aren't hearing it. You know the song, so your mind might recall the missing parts and hear the beauty of it. But for those that never heard the real thing, they walk away unimpressed, not understanding all the hype about this band.
Not a musician? A similar phenomenon can occur in the work place. You may feel you have talents, abilities and ideas that are never seen or heard. The job may not require you to use them or the corporate culture may discourage the type of contribution you feel you could make. You're like a drummer with the ability to deliver amazingly complex and clever percussion. But you might as well be standing there holding a cowbell. You're playing your heart out but impressing nobody.
Sometimes I wonder if God ever feels the disappointment or frustration of that musician or employee who has a song to play or a contribution to make but lacks the proper venue. The songwriter created a masterpiece but the audience hears a poorly balanced mess broadcast through a horribly imbalanced sound system. His plan is perfectly orchestrated and the lyrics need to be heard. But the venue is poor and the sound system incapable of properly transmitting the song.
Those fans that have heard the unfiltered song fill in the gaps and understand. But the rest of the audience, having never heard the real thing, walks away unimpressed, not understanding all the hype about this Jesus.
So here's my prayer: God, perform your music in my life. Don't let the inadequacy of this venue cause anyone to miss the beauty of your song. Fill in the gaps so that they hear it the way you wrote it. Thank you for the mercy and grace you exhibit in not condemning and rejecting but continuing to use inadequate venues like this one.
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