My dad, talented in all things musical, had a sharp ear and perfect pitch.
“Should have been a B-flat not a B-natural.”
He could be working the back forty, but when I struck a wrong note on the piano, he surfaced. Huffing and puffing in his dirt smeared Oshkosh B’Gosh overalls Dad appeared next to where I sat at the piano. It was as if my sounds shocked the air and delivered a wave of torture to his ears. Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead and agony showed in the creases of his sun-browned face.
“Play it again.”
Practicing piano was like sand in my underwear.
To his thinking, not only did practice make perfect, it brought certain disaster if mistakes weren’t corrected. Errored repetition, he preached, became a difficult habit to break.
I’m not sure if he recognized how true that was in all of life, but knowing Dad, I think that was exactly what he wanted to drill into me.
Dissonance drove him crazy. Dad insisted on disciplining my ear and fingers to get the notes right from the start.
First John 3:4 tells us, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4; ESV)
Reading that verse, a picture of Dad, in faded denim hovering over my fingers on the keys came to mind.
“Practice makes perfect,” my dad used to say referring to my dubious piano skills. But how does that apply to other areas of our lives?
An undisciplined pianist, tone deaf to the sounds of misplayed notes, shows disregard for pureness of sound. A believer who violates God’s laws clashes with the perfect standard of God’s holiness. They are incongruent, like dissonant chords.
And, those repeated errors, steal from its intended untarnished joy.
The book of John reminds us an unregenerate world, does not know Christ. It is in fact, polar opposite in philosophy, standard, and eternal destiny. Yet, despite Scripture’s warnings, we often try to reconcile the two, to soften their disharmony. We naively allow its discord into our lives, often under the guise of compassion and goodwill. However, toleration moves a misplaced step toward acceptance and embrace.
James 4:4 puts it like this, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 ESV)
Paul also warns believers: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8 ESV)
An unbridgeable canyon exists.
In fact, Jesus came to bring discord to the practice of sin in our souls, because its conflict brings us to Him.
I know this message doesn’t fit well with the culture of today. People frown on the language of “sin” and replace it with kinder, less offensive and more harmonious words like “mistakes,” “failures,” or “choices.” But, God who is after all God, clearly names sin as disobedience against Him. Further yet, He declares us all sinful, missing the mark of His righteousness.Jesus came to bring discord to the practice of sin in our souls. Share on X
Jesus died for our sins, and He lavishes on us grace and mercy through salvation, but at times we may play to the tune of a lazy grade-schooler on a piano bench trying to get by with what we can. It is a sure road to spiritual tone-deafness.
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4; ESV)
Jesus offers grace not so that we can repeat and continue to practice the spiritual disorder John spoke of, but instead, to save us from it.
Kinda like that earthly father who hurried to stand by my side, and help me hit the right notes. He cared about what I practiced. And I am thankful he did.
Perfect pitch didn’t pass on to me. Nor did my piano skills attain to my Dad’s desired ideals of “Practice makes perfect.”
Even so, I’m grateful for the lesson I hear through the memory of his booming voice as I read the words from John, because they remind me of the unmerited grace that is mine each and every day.
Are the practices of my life perfecting discord or displaying harmony with Jesus?
I know the kind of practice I want to perfect.
Sue Kroeker
This was right on, Sylvia❣️PERFECT practice makes perfect!😘
Sylvia Schroeder
From Mrs. Music herself! Thanks so much Sue!
Barbara Latta
Our desire for comfort and the easy way does draw us to comply with those dissonant chords of life. Thanks, Sylvia, for bringing to light how we can fail to recognize when we hit the wrong note in our attitudes and actions.
Sylvia Schroeder
Thank you Barbara! You are so very right, those wrong “notes” show up in attitudes and actions. And they can sneak right in there. I want to be sensitive to what is inconsistent with Jesus’ perfect character.
Grace Curby
My dad, also a pianist, used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect!” He was basically saying the same thing as your dad though, that repetition of errors becomes ingrained if we don’t discipline ourselves to correct it. (I was a reluctant piano-practicer too! How I wish I had persevered!)
Sylvia Schroeder
I love that Grace! Perfect practice makes perfect! Sue’s comment offered that same wisdom. It is precisely what I meant to say and with a whole less words! Thanks! Love that!
Grace Curby
Speaking of correcting, that sentence of mine should say, “… if we don’t discipline ourselves to correct them.” 😬
Sylvia Schroeder
Yup. Together in the reluctant-piano-practicer-but wish-I’d-preserved-club with you.
Gina Castell
This is such a good example of God‘s perfection and holiness and our inability to meet the mark. Some of us, like myself, do not have inbred musical talents. Similarly, none of us have the ability to be sinless or obey God in our own strength. We were born in sin and do not have a natural ability to obey God. Even when we practice, we can “play the wrong notes.” Thank God for his grace. Love your work!!! ❤️ G
Sylvia Schroeder
Gina, you said it so well. Unless Jesus has transformed the inside, sin remains the same inside even if we manage to make some behavioral changes outside. We must first be reborn in Christ, and then walk in obedience. Thanks so much Gina.