2021 Daily Devotion - Day 294

Yo-Yo Ma, one of the most famous cellists in our day, once said, "When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them that the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner. In order to become a professional," he says, "you need to go through years of training. You get criticized by all your teachers, and you worry about all the critics. You are constantly being judged. But if you get onstage and all you think about is what the critics are going to say, if all you are doing is worrying, then you will play terribly. You will be tight, and it will be a bad concert. Instead," Ma says, "one needs to constantly remind oneself to play with the abandon of the child who is just learning the cello." (Jonah Lehrer, Imagine, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, pp. 110-111.)

There is a great amount of truth here. Too many times, “we can’t get out of our own way”. By that, I mean our pride and arrogance get in the way of being all we are meant to be. In our efforts to impress others, we go over the top. We use words most people never use. We talk about the tremendously difficult and important work we are doing, just hoping someone will be impressed. At work itself, we don’t really do what our boss is asking us to do but what we think ought to be done. We frequently make simple things more difficult than they need to be. YoYo Ma is correct. If all that motivates us is trying to impress others, we will find it hard to advance in life. But rather, coming at things with humility is the key.

It is even true spiritually. We cannot grow spiritually without first being humble or becoming like a child. By being childlike, we are renouncing our so-called self-sufficiency and replacing it with trusting God who loves to do a new work in us. This is how Jesus put it:

Matthew 18:1-5 ESV
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, the world has convinced us that we must try to impress others. In many respects we have been indoctrinated in being overconfident and egotistical, and it has not benefited our lives. Help us to have the humility of a child and then watch what You can do with someone who is pliable in Your hands. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church