THOUGHTS FROM A MUSICIAN'S HEART

AND SO FULFILL THE LAW OF CHRIST by Carter Johnson

I had finally arrived in Texas for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition . And I had a

badly injured right arm.

In the weeks prior, I was in Ireland for the Dublin International Piano Competition, and in the

three days prior to the final round, I had over-practiced my concerto on a very heavy-action

piano. When you combine this with the fact that it was also the Prokofiev second concerto —

and this was all the culmination of a year of high stress levels, bad sleep, and poor posture — it’s

a marvel something worse hadn’t happened earlier.

But now, there was nothing I could do about it. After years of preparation, I made it to arguably

the most high-level piano competition in the world — and yet I couldn’t practice for more than an hour a day, while most of my colleagues were getting in five to ten times that much.

This led to a few things. First, a couple days of despair! I was moody, irritable, and most

importantly, pessimistic about both my abilities and the outcome. This was the worst part of the

entire competition.

After that, the Lord aided me in picking myself up. Or, perhaps — he picked me up. Just leading

up to my first round performance, I was able to settle into a routine of gentle practice, left-

handed practice, score study, mental practice, and physical/spiritual rest. None of this would

have been possible if he had not given me the grace of hope.

But another thing that helped me, and was spiritually the most touching part of my competition

experience, was the prayer and encouragement that I received from my friends at the

Masterworks Festival, both students and faculty, and including many people I had not heard from

in years. Of course I had received many forms of good wishes from all kinds of people, but I

found that there was a clearly disproportionate percentage of Christians — particularly classical

musicians who are Christians — who were in touch with me. With encouragement, scripture, and

reports of prayers being delivered for me.

What a blessing this was! And I have to say, at a time when I was so busy and had far too many

messages than I could possibly answer, those very often were the messages I responded to first

— because they brought spiritual medicine for me.

To conclude, I offer some scriptures that speak to the blessing this experience was to me.

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The

effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

 — James 5:16

“Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” 

— 1 Thessalonians 5:11

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

--Galations 6:2