the rock and THE CANYON

I think I understand now why bands break up. Please let me explain.

Being around the same small group of people for so long takes its toll. You begin to notice many things about people. You notice the good things and the bad things. The temptation then is to take the good things for granted and to dwell on the bad things.

It’s not just that we’re together all the time, but we “work” together all the time to. We all have separate roles that collectively compile that which is our program. We all care about our program and how it affects others. So within all that lies more opportunities for noticing bad things, or having disagreements of opinion.

I can understand how all of that could tear a band apart. Not to mention that “real” bands write their own music and must decide upon the direction of their band, unlike CTI. But amidst all of the temptation towards negativity resides our sole, and original, purpose. Our purpose is to share God’s message with others, and to please Him through our efforts.

The other day we played at the church of a CTI alumnus. The audience was fairly mixed, but largely 40+. Afterwards, we got nothing but compliments on how much they liked it. Nothing pleases me, the sound guy, more than old people telling me how much they loved it! All of their encouragement was a reminder to focus on the bigger picture.

“…for those down in the valley with the dirt and the bugs. That is where the real work of [artistic] creation happens, not up in ivory towers or scenic overlooks, but with blistered hands and stained clothes. Still, in the dirt it is easy to lose perspective over time. Easy to see rock rather than canyon, thread rather than dress – easy to be so focused on the single word in the lyric that you can lose sight of the song or of why you make music in the first place.”

-Michael Gungor from The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse

He may have been talking about being an artist, but the point applies here too. A CTI program is crafted with details (the rocks), but its purpose is bigger than that (the canyon). Its purpose is something that can’t be seen in the day-to-day minutia. We must step back and remind ourselves why we do this. I think that’s a great exercise for anyone in any situation – to re-examine why we do the things we do. Wouldn’t want to end up lost, not knowing how we got there would we?

I hope we can all learn to step back from time to time, and examine what we’re doing. With our job, school, ministry, whatever. Are we doing it for ourselves, are we doing it for others, are we doing it for God?