A striking parallel struck me: perhaps one way of thinking of our relationship with God is to compare it to a composers relationship with a performer of his work.
Many an hour of my university career has been spent practicing my guitar. I've reached a standard now where I don't have to think too much about playing the right notes and can instead focus on my interpretation of the piece, i.e. how accurately I realise the composers intentions.
A musical score is not simply a collection of notes. It should be properly noted with expressions and dynamics. Even when I read all of these, however, there is still another level to which I can go. By studying the composer and learning about his history and the context in which the piece in question was composed I can inform my performance even further and come even closer to what the composer had in mind when he penned those dots.
God created the world and He did so perfectly. How accurately are we going to realise his intentions?
Sometimes we will make mistakes; they might be obvious and performance crippling errors like forgetting the melody and freezing part of the way through (Adam and Eve eating the apple?) or maybe a minor error; playing mezzoforte instead of mezzopiano or plucking/bowing a note pontecello rather than tasto.
Unlike musical performance, however, where a wrong note or a lapse of memory will keep us from reaching our goals, the errors in our performance of life have been accounted for and cleared up. I might not play a single chord in tune but I can still be a great guitarist in Christ...
A final note is that if studying a composers context can add an extra and deeper layer of meaning to my performance, then studying God and His word can add an extra layer of depth and meaning in our lives and help us achieve His plan for us more accurately.
Many an hour of my university career has been spent practicing my guitar. I've reached a standard now where I don't have to think too much about playing the right notes and can instead focus on my interpretation of the piece, i.e. how accurately I realise the composers intentions.
A musical score is not simply a collection of notes. It should be properly noted with expressions and dynamics. Even when I read all of these, however, there is still another level to which I can go. By studying the composer and learning about his history and the context in which the piece in question was composed I can inform my performance even further and come even closer to what the composer had in mind when he penned those dots.
God created the world and He did so perfectly. How accurately are we going to realise his intentions?
Sometimes we will make mistakes; they might be obvious and performance crippling errors like forgetting the melody and freezing part of the way through (Adam and Eve eating the apple?) or maybe a minor error; playing mezzoforte instead of mezzopiano or plucking/bowing a note pontecello rather than tasto.
Unlike musical performance, however, where a wrong note or a lapse of memory will keep us from reaching our goals, the errors in our performance of life have been accounted for and cleared up. I might not play a single chord in tune but I can still be a great guitarist in Christ...
A final note is that if studying a composers context can add an extra and deeper layer of meaning to my performance, then studying God and His word can add an extra layer of depth and meaning in our lives and help us achieve His plan for us more accurately.
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