Priscilla Joy

I like to think of myself as a musician. I mean, if taking piano lessons for years as a kid and knowing some music theory makes you a musician, I guess it’s true. Knowing how to play a musical instrument is a special gift. Now, years from when I sat down at our little keyboard and plunked out “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, I can sit down and let out my emotion on a piano, pick a random song I like and learn to play it fairly easily, or even write my own music. It takes a while to get there though.

I remember starting piano lessons and going through Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, Volume 1. Most of the pieces were simple, childish tunes with usually a lot of repetition and it got complicated when you had to play a chord in the bass clef and the melody with your right hand. The theme of the lyrics that accompanied the songs usually was about puddles or going up in a ferris-wheel “up, up in the world so high”. I soon moved on and played with more poise and confidence, proudly practicing a simplified version of the “William Tell Overture” for a recital, I arranged my own version of “Red River Valley” and loved to play “Joyous Farmer” by Robert Schumann with all my might (and joy).

I was a quite determined little piano student though and I still remember the day when I asked my piano teacher to give me a challenge. I had a very specific challenge I wanted too. Which was the music from “Lord of the Rings” of course. My piano teacher was a laid back young woman who also taught a theatre class on the side and I am sure she had been around her share of nerdy little homeschool kids. She raised her eyebrows at me, clearly not sure if my skill was quite there yet but she agreed and at my next piano lesson she brought the coveted piano book with her, complete with the epic pictures from the motion picture covering the front. I was so excited, though I knew it was going to be more challenging than music I had played previously. We started with “Evenstar”, moved on to “In Dreams”, “Concerning Hobbits” the “Rohan” theme, “Gollum’s Song” and all the rest. At the end of that year, I was so proud of how much I had grown as a piano student. I picked music that was clearly above my skill level and rose to the occasion to learn it. For that year’s recital, I put together a medley of my favorite “Lord of the Rings” tunes, my teacher graciously helping me arrange it all.

That started a new chapter for me as a piano student, I now had the freedom to choose what music I wanted to play and not just the next tune in the Alfred books. I picked some classical pieces, a couple themes from motion pictures I loved and hymn arrangements. It seemed each thing I picked was a bit harder than the last and I had to hone the skills I had learned and practice a lot. Challenging yourself is really good but it is also, well, challenging. One thing stays the same, every time I pick up a new and more difficult composition, it is easy to look at the music and think “I just can’t.” I remember looking at different pieces and seeing that it was ten pages long, in a time signature I wasn’t used to, or seeing so many sharps, flats and naturals that my head would start spinning and I would feel overwhelmed. Then I would sit down and play the first measure of music. On some compositions, that would take a lot of time, as I figured out the timing and hit each note just right.

Music doesn’t seem so complicated when you look at it one measure at a time. When I was working on a particularly challenging piano piece, I would break it down in sections, work on it little by little, practice the treble clef and later add in the bass, and in a few weeks I would be able to play it all smoothly. Practice does make progress as my mother says. It is such a thrilling feeling to take a piece of music that seemed impossible a few weeks ago and perform it with grace. One measure at a time will soon bring you to the end of the composition.

Sometimes I think we view life like a difficult piano piece. We see something ahead of us and think “I could never go through that.” This past year has been like that for me. There have been hardships that hover in the future ahead of me and I think “I don’t think I can do that.” The world buzzes with news and we react to these predicted events with uncertainty and we ask God “Please don’t make me go through that.” And then, those things actually happen and it is hard and we walk through it with blood, sweat and tears but we come out on the other side stronger. The truth is we serve a God who calls us to do hard things. When I said “yes” to God and gave Him my life, I didn’t realize He would take me so far out of my comfort zone and through the valleys that I have walked through. Sometimes the things God calls us to look impossible, rather like a difficult piano piece, in a key that we have never played in before. But He also calls us to walk through it in the same way, one measure at a time.

In the “Sermon on the Mount” and the following passages of Matthew 5-7, Jesus shows us a way to live that in many ways seems impossible, definitely not like anything we are used to. He tells us that the meek, the hungry, the peacemakers, the reviled and persecuted are the ones who will inherit the earth. He tells us to love our enemies and to give our cloak to the one who takes our tunic. He tells us that the law is even greater than we imagined, that the Lord is looking at our heart and not only our outward behavior. It seems like nothing we could ever do or accomplish. But our gracious Lord doesn’t leave us there. He calls us to take it one day at a time. One “measure” as I like to say.

In Matthew 6:34 he tells us, “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” I think we could all agree with that last phrase. Each day has its own sufficient troubles. Yes, this life is hard but we don’t have to worry about tomorrow and Jesus tenderly walks through it all with us. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” as the Lord reminded Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9.

I started this year with the prayer that the Lord would grow me “deeper” in Him. It was kinda like me wanting to play a complicated piano piece. I heard the finished product and it was beautiful and I thought “I want to play that”. So I get the music and it was hard, but measure by measure, with a lot of practice and work put into it, the beautiful song emerges from my own fingertips. The Lord has called me to some hard things but day by day, trial by trial we walked through it and now I can look back at all the pain, all the heartache, all those anxious days that He brought me through and all I see is a breath-taking song.