These past few weeks I have been struggling with perfection, and how it has always failed me. I want to share a conversation I had with a horn teacher during my lesson, and how it changed my mind on how I see God in relation to His people.
I was playing the Bach Cello Suite IV- Sarabande and Bourree (incase you want to look it up). As I played, I started to miss more notes as I went on, and I eventually stopped saying "ugh! why am I missing so many notes?!" I was not happy with myself and even mad that I could not play all the notes.
Upon discovering my faith, the teacher was able to give me Godly advice because she is a Christian, too. She said something like "Now Emily, you know the Lord is all knowing and powerful. He has created us in His image, and He loves us very much! Do you think He will hate you if you miss a note?" Of course I laughed and realized no, of course not. She continued to say that God is perfect, therefore there is no reason we have to be! If we were perfect, then we would be our own god.
I was baffled. I couldn't believe I was trying to be so perfect. Why be so perfect when God is? He is the only perfect living being, and He sets the standard. The teacher continued to say "Emily, just let go and play for your God! He gave you the gift to play the horn, now play with a beautiful sound, and play for Him!"
The battle is already won when Jesus Christ died on the cross and defeated sin. So why should I try and not acknowledge it with playing horn? God has given me Jesus so I do not have to try and be perfect. What I'm really saying is, why do we try so hard to succeed? The only important success is Jesus dying on the cross for His people and saving all of us from sin! That is the only thing we should look to, and nothing more or less. Jesus is our perfection, we are His people, and we need to live life for Him for all that He has done for us. Amen.
