Follow Me
/In a dream, I found myself sitting inside a band hall full of chairs and music stands scattered randomly, like all band halls between rehearsals. I was the only musician in the room, and I was holding my trombone and sitting in the third chair from the end of the row when I heard a sharp rapping sound known to all musicians as the conductor calling his group to attention.
It seemed a little strange to me since I was apparently alone in the room, but I put my horn up out of habit and prepared to play. I didn’t even have any music.
The conductor said, “Let’s begin.”
“Begin what? I don’t have any music.”
“Just follow Me and it’ll be fine.”
“Follow where? What do You want me to play?”
“Just improvise. Follow My lead. Start in A-flat and try to keep up through the changes in the chorus.”
“You want me to improvise in the key of A-flat? That means I have to play in 5th position. Nobody plays 5th in tune. Let’s do something else.”
“You always want to do something else, don’t you? You always want to pick the music. I’m the conductor. Just follow Me. Trust Me.”
“I do trust You. I just want to you to pick a key I can play well. How about something in F? I always play better in F.”
“Not as often as you think.”
“What? How often do You hear me play?”
“Well, I’m the one who gave you that horn. I’m the one who gave you music.”
“My parents gave me this horn back in 1970.”
“But I put it in your heart, and I gave you the music. It’s because of Me that you still play. And, by the way, it wouldn’t have hurt if you’d’ve practiced a little more through the years.”
“You wanted me to practice?”
“I gave you a gift; don’t you think I expected you to practice a little?”
“Well, I did practice. I made All State, I played in college, I play in church orchestra … “
“I gave you a gift, and I wanted you to use it more often. But, that is beside the point. Let’s play!”
“I don’t have any music.”
“Improvise.”
“You want me to play jazz?”
“Why do you always want a plan, a direction, a piece of music to look at? Is it so you won’t have to follow Me? You don’t want to be a musician; you want to be a technician … a plan follower. I want you to follow Me.”
“OK, I’m ready. Should we tune?”
“Oh, suddenly you want to tune. All these years you didn’t worry that much about tuning. You just wanted to play the notes.”
“Should we tune?”
“We’ll tune as we go. You’re playing a trombone, the easiest instrument to play in tune. Remember, you’re holding your tuning slide in your hand.”
“Yea, yea, I’ve heard that my whole life. If I’m holding my tuning slide in my hand, it also means a trombone is the easiest instrument to play out of tune.”
“Don’t get Me started. You wanted choices. You wanted free will. You wanted to be independent. You could’ve played an instrument with structure and no obligation for tuning … like the triangle.”
“But I’d only get to play one note.”
“Do you want freedom or not? If you want to play a lot of notes, play them in tune. Let’s go.”
“Well, I’m sorry I’ve played out of tune so often. My ear isn’t as good as it used to be.”
“Your ear was never that good. Maybe if you’d practiced more … “
“The thing is, I can usually tell when I am out of tune … I just can’t tell if I am sharp or flat. I can tell I’m off, I just don’t know how to fix it.”
“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said since we started. You play the horn and let Me tune for you as we go.”
“You can tune my horn while I am playing?”
“I don’t care about your horn. I’ll tune your heart. You just play.”
“How will tuning my heart make me play well?”
“Stop worrying about whether you play well. That’s My problem. All I want you to do is practice, and play, and listen, and follow Me.”
“So, what’s my job again?”
“Follow me and let me tune your heart as we go.”
“OK. So what are we playing?”
“Just follow Me.”
“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32
