A Terrible Journey

At my daughter's piano lesson last night, her teacher (whom we adore) declared that K is at the beginning of "a terrible journey." I had not thought of the burden he was referring to described quite that way, but after our discussion, I think he is right.

K is a talented musician. I've made this assessment trying to be as unbiased as possible. I've been a pianist my whole life (including the first 5 years where my musical education was less formal and more familial), am the daughter of two wonderful musicians, one professional, and I've been a piano teacher for quite a while. Believe me, I've experienced the spectrum of musical giftedness. Me, I consider myself a mediocre performer, but I do have a good and critical ear. K is talented. The point her teacher was making was that because of her talent, she can get by and have a decent lesson or performance without much effort. But should she?

Do we all have those times? I could get decent grades without killing myself over assignments or reading the text. I could have an ok performance with just a little practice. How many of us had the teacher who said that we'd be great, if only we'd just apply ourselves? Sound familiar? Then I think back on my college days, and how much more I should have made of those years if only I had worked a little harder and played a little less. One could argue that there is value in play, sure, but not so much in this case.

Tim the Marvelous Piano Teacher called this bad stewardship. (He is also a Christian.) This was a new concept to me. God gifted us with music. He placed it in our hands like a fragile bird, closed our fingers around it, looked into our eyes, and asked us to please take good care of it--indeed, to make it even better (see the parable of the talents.) Or our family motto, from Luke 12:48, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded."

Sure, we could skate by, or keep what has been given to us intact. By most standards, keeping what we've been given in good shape, and returning it as we found it, would be considered responsible and good. But as Christians, we are on a terrible, wonderful journey. We are to be grateful for our gifts, which, in K's case, is music (and so much more). Then we are to continually, joyously challenge ourselves to do better than good enough. Thank you, Tim, for teaching us that lesson, and thank you, God, for putting Tim in our lives so that we might learn.