The Piano Lesson - Preparing For The Performance Of Your Life

The Piano Lesson - Preparing for the Performance of Your Life

IF LIFE as you know it today changed tomorrow, where would you find your strength?

Or, perhaps, did life change for you yesterday?

Carolyn Custis James, in her book When Life and Beliefs Collide, explains why we must prepare now. “Life has a way of crashing down on us without warning,” she writes. “Whether we like it or not, sooner or later all of us end up in the war zone, where life ceases to be tidy and the pain threshold goes off the charts. Women are not spared this kind of active combat, which makes it all the more urgent for us to think through our theology so our views of God will sustain us when the battle begins to rage.”^a

Perhaps one of the following is your reality today:

A business is failing and bankruptcy looms.

A nursery stands empty.

A son is arrested.

A husband is missing from his side of the bed.

Life is hard. The heat is on.

Do you feel like you’re sitting on the stage alone? You’re not.

As hopeless, as empty, as tired, as frustrated, as sad, and as angry as you may feel, I want you to know you’re not going through this alone. God is sitting right there on the bench beside you. The question is: Will you let him play too? Or will you insist on making this a solo performance?

Whether you’re facing your biggest nightmare or living the big life, I hope you will consider how great it would be to have God on stage with you. Only he can fortify you with confidence, hope, and peace as you play the hard notes.

Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:11-12)

We have work to do if we’re ever to experience joy in the pain.

^a Carolyn Custis James, When Life and Beliefs Collide (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 82.