Friday, September 21

Play Your Scales!

Scales are the foundation for anyone who wants to be a good musician. I had been playing the piano since I was 3 years old when I auditioned for the Univ. of MD's piano department out of high school... and the the very first thing they wanted to hear from me was scales. As a music performance major there, I was expected to practice at least 40 hours a week, and at least 10 of those hours were expected to be spent practicing my scales. The great Polish concert pianist Paderewski once said, "If I skip one day of practicing scales, I notice it in my playing. If I skip two days, my coach notices. If I skip three days, the world notices it."

For Christ-followers, spending quality, uninterrupted time with the Lord is like playing scales... it is foundational to living a productive and purposeful life. It doesn't matter whether you've been a believer for a month, a year, or 20 years... having an alone time with Jesus is crucial. Doesn't matter whether who you are or what you do... you can't miss out on your daily quiet time.

You can skip one day, and maybe nobody will notice but you. You skip two days, and maybe only those closest to you will notice. But when it becomes a habit to skip out on your quiet time... we all notice. Because it's foundational to your life... to MY life. Jesus said, "Without Me, you can do nothing."

Patience grows thin...
Vision becomes less clear...
Anger rises more often...
Temptation is given into more consistently...

Don't skip out on your daily alone time with Jesus... play your scales!

3 comments:

Jim Henry said...

well said my friend...well said.

Jeremiah said...

This is a great lesson, I'm gonna steal it and teach it to my youth!

DARREN PLUMMER: said...

That's okay... I stole it from Pastor Wayne Cordeiro and just made it my own! ;-)