THOUGHTS FROM A MUSICIAN'S HEART

GOD’S STRENGTH IN MY WEAKNESS

This past school year/concert season was busy and challenging. Work was busy for my wife and me and even busier than the previous year in several ways. We were learning how to be parents for the first time and running on low sleep for much of the year. Don’t get me wrong -- we are grateful for the work, and grateful to be parents. And although we had prayerfully considered the challenges that faced us in the year and felt like God was calling us to those things, it was still a tough and tiring year. 

On top of my usual workload, our symphony director had asked me to play a concerto with the orchestra. He picked the piece, which was a new work by a composer I didn’t know, and that the audience knew nothing about. This felt like an especially daunting task. I not only needed to play it well, but to play it in a way that hopefully spoke to someone in the audience. Finding enough practice time between parenting and my other work obligations was also challenging. 

There were many times in the past year that I felt like I was doing everything I could and still coming up short in many areas. In a moment when I was feeling especially overwhelmed, my wife encouraged me with

2 Corintians 12:9-10: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest  upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

God was teaching me that I had limits, that I had weaknesses when I wanted to be feeling strong, and that he would give me strength.

When I played the concerto in March, it went well and was received warmly by the audience. God showed his grace to me in bringing me through moments of high stress and frustration to feeling ready, at peace, and even excited for the concerts.

As I meditate on this theme of God’s strength in my weakness, I think of Gideon, who God called to gather an army to defeat his enemies. God then downsized the army of 32,000 men to just 300, preventing Gideon from depending on his own strength. (Judges 7:2) I think of Moses, who God called to lead his people, even though Moses told him he didn’t feel up to the task. (Exodus 4:10-12) And I think of Jesus, the Son of the only almighty God, who became weak for us, so that we could live in God’s strength. (2 Cor 8:9, Phil 2:6-8)

I’m learning to deepen my trust in God that He will provide what I need to accomplish the tasks he’s given me. God will be glorified in my dependence on Him. (Psalm 46: 1, Phil 4: 11-13)