Practicing for the Recital of Life

Over the last few weeks God has been working on my heart. It's been a wonderfully healing kind of pain.  I've told you before about how I stink at doing housework and a majority of domestic tasks.  I've chalked it up to so many different things ranging from forgetfulness to pain in my knee to little hands that get in the way.  Some were legitimate reasons, others legitimate excuses, but really, it came down to something a little more..how shall I say it nicely? ....oh wait, let's not sugarcoat this: SINFUL!

Let's give a few muscles to the skeleton of a story I just presented to you.

Over the last few weeks/months different videos, articles, conversations, and so on have come my way that have highlighted the need for mastering basic skills before taking on the final project.  Let me expound with a musical example:
A pianist does not play scales at a recital, they play a masterpiece by a maestro who also did not play scales and count time in front of the masses.  The hours and hours of practicing scales and simple pieces gave them a foundation to build harder pieces of music upon. People like Jazz musicians probably know this the best. They not only have to know a piece, but how the different notes interplay with each other inside and out so that when their turn for improvisation comes up it produces wonderful resolving dissonances and harmonies!  If these musicians did not have a basic understanding of music, but simply memorized large compositions, they would not sound as beautiful, they would sound mechanical or even worse. 

Same goes for housework, or anything, really. You have to have the basics down before you have a showstopping worthy performance...or daily life.

Here comes my conviction.  I love...LOVE hosting people. I love cooking and serving tea and cakes. I love making things that make people feel special and loved.  I love it when people feel free to pop in unannounced and just have tea and visiting with me. (that is hard given Buddy's particular anxiety's, but on school days....totally different story!)  But, the thing with unannounced guests is that my house is often painfully untidy.  S make take that pronouncement a bit further and call it messy. 

About three weeks ago, I spontaneously invited someone over for supper.  It had been a chaotic week, so things were a little worse than normal, but S and I blitzed a tiny bit before she got here and at least swept the crumbs out of the way (literally, they weren't swept up, but swept over to the side of the room!! AH!).  We still had dishes from a day or two prior sitting in the sink and so on.  She enjoyed supper with us, and I even persuaded her to stay overnight! It's a very Turkish thing to do - ask your guests to stay over instead of having them leave.  We made samosas and hung out all the next day too, and she stayed another night. 

...the thing is, she helped me clean.  While she enjoyed doing it, and it was a huge blessing for me to have a hand doing it, it made me realize that my mess, even when hastily contained affects people in my home. I need to practice the scales of my home before I can go out for my recital of welcoming.

I used to think I was good at hospitality.  Now I realize that my 'performance' has been a little flat. I need to practice the basics and get them down pat before people really feel not only welcome, but comfortable in my home.

This conviction branches out in so many other directions too - things like writing - you need to know spelling and grammar before you can write a novel. You need to know how to cut up vegetables before you can make ratatoullie. ..and so on.

Most of all, I think this has hit me (besides my housework) in the idea of God department. Do I know His love? Do I know his grace?  ...etc. or do I "just" dabble in highfalutin theology that I think has foundation, but don't really know it?  Is the foundation solid?  Back to the awe-inspiring basic.


How about you? Does this hit home at all? In what way?

Straining ahead,
J

Soli Deo Gloria