Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our king, sing praises. For the Lord is king over all the earth. Sing praises with a skillful psalm. – Psalm 47:6-7

Whatever we do as our vocation, we are called to do it with excellence. We are to do all things as unto the Lord, regardless of whether we like our company or the work, whether our boss is kind, unkind, competent, or incompetent. From a musician’s perspective, we are called similarly to do what we do with diligence, discipline, and skill. Because we must remember that what we do in our professions is unlikely to be our profession in heaven - all of us will be worshippers in heaven.

The discipline we must show is one of the hidden and unseen, which affects the public and seen. Let me explain.

There are few nicer compliments than someone being told that they make what they do look so easy. But anyone who has practiced music knows that excellence comes not just through gifting, but also through sweat. It is countless hours in a practice room behind closed doors that make moving performances possible.

In a strange sense, musicians are like diamond miners. In a mountain, there may be a beautiful diamond. God created it and placed it there. But in order for people to enjoy it, we must dig, with sweat and toil to get at it. Then we must carefully and skillfully chip away at it, to make it catch the light just right and show its beauty to others.

In a similar way, God has placed natural musical gifting in many people, but for most, they go unrealized. The potential never becomes the reality - why? Just like the diamond, the process to get to the diamond is extremely difficult. Hours of scales, arpeggios, harmony, theory, sweat, and toil. Just the fundamentals to get a skill level high enough to present this gift on stage takes long hours over years to get. Then it takes expert “chipping away” for us to find our own unique voice on an instrument, to bring the true beauty out, to catch the true Light and reflect its beauty so that others can enjoy it.

We are called to be skillful worshippers, and to put in the due diligence in a way that honors and glorifies the Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Father of Lights.