The place of artists

I love the emphasis placed on skillful artistry throughout the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles. God ordains that the temple will be built and decorated to the finest detail by the hands of skilled craftsmen. The musicians who are to lead the congregation in singing and playing before the Lord are gifted and well-practiced in those areas. From the time of David through the ages, so much of the great art and music of the world was created in worship to God. Let's carry on this tradition! Who better to inspire masterpieces than the true master Artist?

The piano took up the living room.

My little cabin in the woods is well-furnished. In the weeks after moving in, I inherited (from various friendly folks) a couch and two love seats, a long coffee table, and a dining room table with three chairs. Add those to the bed that already lived here and the red travel trunk I brought with me (my mother's, from college), and you have yourself a home! Yesterday brought one final piece of furniture into the cabin: a Jacob Doll New York Boudoir Grand piano.

I told Grandma Duke about it today, and she got almost as excited as I had. "Oh, that's company," she said. "Something like that, it'll keep you company. It's almost like having someone there with you... if you'll play it when you want to make a joyful noise, and play it too when you're not joyful, that piano will keep you company. That piano will... well, it'll talk to you."

I chuckled at the time, but I think she was right. I've struggled at times with living alone in the cabin. I've had to wrestle my impractical desire for a dog or a kitten to the ground more than once. I came home today and scooted the piano to the perfect spot (behind the wood stove, backed up against the island in my kitchen space). I got out the furniture polish and shined it up, and then I sat down and played and sang my heart out.

Maybe it's a silly thing to set so much stock on a Jacob Doll Boudoir Grand with a few odd keys, but Jesus knew what I needed, and I think He delights to give gifts to His children and watch them rejoice.

Service as a gift

"The more we do in the Lord's service, the greater are our obligations to Him, for the will, for the ability, and opportunity."
-Matthew Henry in his commentary on Leviticus 1

This, like so much of faith, is so backwards from the way we think. We feel that the Lord should be indebted to us for our service, that we are somehow giving Him something out of the goodness of our own hearts. But everything we have was given to us by His hands in the first place, even the very opportunities we have to minister! We really cannot believe that our cars and houses and food come out of His generosity (and indeed sometimes we don't even give Him credit for these) but then claim that our service to Him flows from our own resources. We have no resources. All is from Him, and He makes it ours to give or to keep, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking that we are especially good or generous. Only One is exceptional in His goodness and generosity, and every good and perfect gift-- including ministry-- comes from Him.

Ash Wednesday

I wrote before about the discipline of fasting bringing a person to a point of recognizing his or her own weakness and thereby knowing more of his or her need for God. Another aspect of fasting is the righting of a person's relationship to material goods. By choosing to fast from certain foods or activities, or from food altogether for a time, two things are accomplished: misplaced worship is abolished and godly appreciation is established. (I am talking, of course, about fasting from things that are not evil in and of themselves-- fasting from sin is actually just called repentance. It's worth your time as well.) When we fast from the God-given things we love and sometimes worship as idols, we return them to their rightful place below God. And, conversely, we also cease to take them for granted. God is Lord of our lives again, and we are duly grateful for His gifts.