I remember one of my joys as a young child was to buy a live lp by an artist. I remember "Wings Over America" being one of my early favorites.Later on in High School my friends and I would listen to Dr. Demento on Sunday nights because many times they would broadcast a live concert recording by a band. We would get our blank cassettes ready so we could record the show. I remember hearing Santana on his "Zebop' tour many times that year on Dr. Demento. Even today I still enjoy buying a live dvd. It was and is always exciting to hear what an artist would do with their songs live. It is interesting to see how some of the songs have evolved. They might play the song longer, the tempo might be faster, there would be certain breaks or "kicks" that weren't on the studio performance. We would then learn the "live' versions and go perform them.
Now as a musician one of my joys is performing live with a band. It is really great to interact with other musicians in a "live" setting. You see when you play live in a band, the way it is suppose to work is that each musician is feeding off each other. This is why it is important to be a musician who not only can play well, but also listen well while he is performing. You can do this even while you are reading a "chart" or music. For example, when a drummer goes to a ride cymbal in a certain part of a song I will go to a certain run if I am playing the bass. Now the wonderful thing is that the next time we do that song the drummer may not use his ride cymbal in that part of the song so my bass line would be inappropriate at that part of the song, so I change my bass run. That is all in the process of listening as a musician. The chords haven't changed, the arrangement hasn't changed, but just by one musician changing how they did it before causes you to change how you approach that song. When I play guitar if the keyboard is "busy" in a certain part, then I try not to be. I expect the same response from a keyboard player if there is a part of the song where I am suppose to be "busy".
Now what does all of this have to do with trying to live for God? Well, in many ways the process is the same. You learn in life how to interact with God. You listen for His lead, and then respond. I think by our very nature we want a life that is fixed with formulas. If I do (a) then this should lead to (b). But walking with God doesn't always go like that. We sometimes want a list of what is ok and what isn't ok. We sometimes want to know how close can I get to the fire without getting burned. What we end up doing is turning a living relationship with Jesus into religion when we begin to do this. Jesus didn't come to start a religion, He came that we might have abundant life.
Of course there are some laws like the Ten Commandments which cannot be broken without harm to our lives. But, there are other things in the Bible that aren't so black or white. This is where I see the correlation between playing music live and living for God. Just as you would as a musician get bored of playing a certain song the same way over and over again, living for God can get boring if you don't learn how to interact with Him.
In the areas that aren't black or white, what may be ok for you, may not be ok for me because God is directing our lives in two different ways. I'll give you an example from my life. Many years ago when I was "doing gigs for a living" I began to feel uncomfortable about doing gigs anymore. I began to feel like God was wanting me to stop doing gigs. Well, eventually I stopped. It was a step of faith. No, it was a leap of faith because I was doing about 125-150 gigs a year at that time. Where was I going to get that money that I was making from gigs. I also enjoyed doing gigs and playing music with all kinds of different musicians. I can say God supplied my needs. Looking back I don't know how, but He did. What I didn't know, was that God was putting me on the fast track in ministry. So, all that I was able to do in ministry I wouldn't have been able to do had I still been commited to doing gigs. But my point is, even though I was called away from doing gigs, that doesn't mean that every musician has to stop doing gigs when they begin to live for Jesus. That was the road He led me down. He may lead someone else down another road. By the way, about a couple of years ago He gave me the ok to play gigs from time to time. That is just one example of how we learn how to follow God's lead. We learn that there isn't always a clear cut way that is the same for everybody.
As I mentioned before, we make living for Jesus boring by turning it into a routine. We also do harm to others when we try to get them to live their lives for God in the exact same way that we have. It would be wrong for me to tell other musicians, "ok you need to stop doing gigs once you begin to live for Jesus." The sad thing is, is that many people do this. We expect them to go down the same road that we went down, but God may have a different road for them.
I have just used music as an example, but there are so many more. A tv show that may not be ok for me to watch may be ok for you. A movie that is ok for me, may not be ok for you. The list could go on and on. He may lead you one day to pray for someone at work and then the next day, you may not be lead to pray.
Again, there are some pretty black and white areas in the Bible and we need to obey those to enjoy the type of life that we have always desired. But there are also other areas that aren't so black and white. In those areas we need to learn to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. He will guide us.
Hopefully I have been able to show you the correlation between playing music live and changing parts of the song and walking with God. Remember though, you can use other activities to get the point across. We interact, we follow His lead. We listen and obey. We make adjustments. This was how Jesus lived while He was on the Earth.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
John 5:19
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 6:38
Jesus would follow the lead of the Father. One day He would be in a certain part of the country, the next He would be led to another part. In fact it was the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days.
Jesus lived His life by interacting with the Father. When you read the Bible you don't get the sense that Jesus got bored by His relationship with the Father. As we follow the example of Jesus, our lives won't get boring either.
Troy
This first video is a clip from the Wings Over America Album. It was one of my early favorite live albums. I always loved how Paul put Jet with Venus and Mars and Rockshow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfKugneK5ao
The next video clip is just an example of a band interacting with each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2laQJWkxh0
This final video is a well known song done a little bit differently by the band. You can hear the guitar player adding parts that weren't in the original recording. It is a great example of how a song developed over time by the artists through live performance. You can sense the energy of the band, the artists, and the audience. Oh to have that type of energy for God. To live life following His lead where life is exciting and full of energy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhcq_Km5QcA
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