Before you read this post, I insist that you watch this video. Believe me, it's well worth a little over four minutes of your life.
Did you watch it?
Alright.
About six years ago I sat in a velour seat at Chenery Auditorium- our local source of "culture" and "refinement"- and watched as the man in the video above, Krystian Zimerman, walked out on stage. A hush fell over the crowd as he flipped up his coattails and draped them over the bench as he sat down. (Well, there was only a hush if you don't count the snickering of an eleven year-old girl who had only seen such things on Looney Tunes when Bugs Bunny was mimicking concert pianists. Don't ask how I know that she was eleven...)
For two hours the audience sat captivated as this man played Maurice Ravel and Frederic Chopin, his eyes on fire and his fingers pounding the piano keys with all their might. We left as the audience continued to applaud for several minutes after his performance. Having never heard any piano music beyond simple Mozart sonatas, I was in awe.
Fast forward six years. Not long ago, I sat once more as a college student performed Chopin's Ballade No. 4 (the song in the video) for a master class at Western Michigan University and a snobby professor tore the song to shreds. When I found the sheet music and printed it off, I was incredulous at the piece's complexity and looked up the song on the internet, hoping to find a version of it that might bestow upon me some sort of magical powers that would allow me to play the song.
Well, that idea didn't work, but I did find Krystian Zimerman after all those years. And, as I listened to the clip that is posted above last night, I thought about how much work he must've put into that piece. Hour after hour after hour after hour. Yes, it's beautiful, but what is the point?
Think about how you and I spend our time- we sleep, we eat, we read, we watch, we blah, blah, blah, etc., etc., etc., but what is the point of it all?
At the end of our days, will we kneel before the throne of our King and say, "Well, precious Lord, I spent a few hours every day in front of the computer, and one hour in front of the TV, but I went to church every week!"? Even our weekly church-going habits don't seem to glisten with radiance when we think about them in light of eternity. Yes, church is wonderful, and TV is seemingly harmless, and movies, do, on occasion, bring glory to Christ, but what are we doing with our time? It's awfully precious, you know.
I don't know about you, but it just dawned on me how short life really is. And, if we keep putting off things that really matter until tomorrow, tomorrow will never come.
"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it." Psalm 39:4-6
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