House Church Talk - playing skillfully, doing diligently

[David Anderson]

>By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes
>his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while
>he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play. But
>this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the  first few bars,
>one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap  it went off
>like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant.
>
>There was no mistaking what he had to do. People who were there that night
>thought to themselves: "We figured that he would have to get up, put on the
>clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage to either find
>another violin or else find another string for this one."
>
>But he didn't.  Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then
>signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played
>from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power
>and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, anyone knows that
>it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know
>that, and you know that,  but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know
>that. You could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his
>head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new
>sounds from them that they had never made before.
>
>When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people
>rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every
>corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering,
>doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done

Thanks Rick, this stuff is unforgettable! Look at all those in every 
field of endeavor whose pain led to eventual gain. Look who won the big 
bicycle race several weeks ago - a cancer survivor. 

Doc Watson - blind. Django Reinhardt, considered by some to be the 
greatest jazz guitarist even after he was paralyzed in his left hand, 
when his apt. caught on fire. The list goes on and on.

It is not our view that men's efforts or excellence earns them anything 
with God. Still, I would like to explore what, if any, place that the 
pursuit of excellence should have in the life of a Christian.

I'll draw some lines from there to the house church community, Lord 
willing.

      David Anderson

Ps. 33:3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
Prov. 22:29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand 
before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.