If You're Not Making Music, You're Just Making Noise

Recently I went with with Lynn and some family members to attend a concert at the University of Louisville involving the U of L choir and a regional honor choir composed of outstanding high school choral students, which included my grandson, Eston.  When my wife and I took our seats in the balcony, stage center, I perused the program and watched as the conductor took the choral group through a series of last minute warmup and practice segments. Then, out of nowhere, I distictly heard the Holy Spirit say to me, "Do you know what's missing up there on that stage?" Before I could consider an answer for that question or even say "No", He began to lay out the astounding answer for me in a very clear and concise revelation. Please allow me to paraphrase as I explain.

I felt in my spirit He was saying haven't you noticed that here we are sitting in a theatre in the middle of the campus of a large public university and no one is protesting the obvious forms of discrimination, social enginerering and political incorrectness occuring on stage with this group? No one is protesting the fact the performers are being devided into groups of male and female, or that the girls have to all wear black gowns or the guys black tuxes. No one is insisting that the conductor allow him or her to sing in the voice group he/she indentifies with or think he/she ought to be in; for instance, an alto wanting to sing with sopranos, or a tenor wanting to sing with the basses, or a soprano wanting to sing with the barritones.  No group is protesting that the director/choral conductor include certain songs with certain subjects or themes, or disclude the same. There are are no cries of outrage from the performers (or audience, for that matter) because one person, the conductor,  is expecting every singer to perform according to his/her plan and direction or be excluded from the group; and, by the way, no one is complaining about the gender, race, religion, etc. of the conductor. In fact, no one from either outside or inside the choral group is complaining or angrily protesting the highly descriminatory process of preparing this unit for its performance.

The fact of the matter is, here is a large group of very talented individuals who have purposely turned over control of their vocal talents, behavior, dress, personal beliefs, identities, biases, prejudences, likes and dislikes for a few hours to one person, the conductor of their choral group, with one specific goal in mind...To make beautiful music for the gratification of both themselves and their audience.  And because it's okay with the performers and they want to hear beautiful music, even the audience supresses their personal urges to protest or complain about politically incorrect elements of the event. Where even one or two acts of selfishness could have blemished this concert, none was seen or heard.  Simply put, everyone involved, either directly or indirectly, with this delightful performance set aside their differences and preferences for a couple of hours so that beautiful music, our first language, could be made...and heard.

As the music began, I heard the Holy Spirit say in my spirit, IF YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC, YOU'RE JUST MAKING NOISE!  Seems to me, that pretty much applies to life in general.

"Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."(Eph 5:19-20)

Now go out there and make some music!