Flowing with the music

I would like to share a wonderful experience that occurred almost two years ago.

Recently, I attended my daughter’s school concert, in which I learned a wonderful spiritual principle. During the performance, a student was highlighted on the xylophone. I could tell as they rolled out the rather large instrument that she was nervous, and it was immediately clear to me why she was nervous once she started playing. I was used to seeing only one set of bars on a xylophone; this one had two. And the tempo of the song was such that it required some fairly fast hands. As the song began, I could see the performer’s eyes locked in on those bars, and it was evident that she was concentrating as hard as she could in order to not miss a beat. And for a while, she appeared to be successful. Inevitably, however, she stumbled. What happened next was beautiful. As the band continued to play, she quickly gathered herself, and she began to be guided by the music. It was at that point that she and the band began to flow like water. Once she stopped concentrating and began to be guided by the music, she stopped worrying. At the conclusion, she received one of the longest ovations of the evening. I stood and applauded her accomplishment. The following day, as I began to reflect on the performance, God showed me the remarkable parallel between that performance and my life. Whenever I tried to concentrate on doing something good, inevitably, I stumbled. I was concentrating so much on trying to do the right thing, and do it perfectly, that I would consistently make a mistake. But once I chose to be guided by His Spirit, I would accomplish things with a remarkable ease. What was happening? When I was concentrating on the task, I moved God out of the equation. I had to do it well, so people would say what a good job I had done. The problem was that I was no longer a servant, because I wanted to be in control. It was no longer God accomplishing something through me, but me doing something for God or for myself. Once I released that desire, and once again became God’s servant, my concern was not how a task turned out, but that I was doing it according to His will. And, even when I thought that it may not have turned out well, others were impressed with the finished product. This was the lesson I learned that evening. I stay focused on how God wants to accomplish something through me, instead of me doing something for Him. This is the attitude of a servant.