Learning Key Lessons to the Beat of a Drum

As I’ve mentioned before, after a hiatus of several decades, I decided to resume taking drum lessons so I could make better use of the electronic kit I had purchased. In high school, I played drums in the marching, concert and dance bands, but had allowed my skills to go dormant in subsequent years.

 

My drum teacher, a veteran of the country music circuit, has helped me to relearn techniques I had forgotten. And he’s taught me lots of new things as well. Recently I told him that besides the specific “grooves” and “fills” I’m learning, I’ve discovered – or rediscovered – two important principles, ones that transcend the world of drumsticks, tom-toms and cymbals. 

The first is that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t have an appreciation for the scope of modern drumming. I had no idea how much technology has advanced drums and percussion over the years. And the simple rhythms I learned as a teenager barely touch on what skilled drummers are doing these days.

 

My second principle is that it takes time to develop skill, no matter how naturally talented you are. The Internet offers thousands of videos of drummers playing with precision and incredible speed. Each time I see one of those I think, “How in the world do they do that?” They have natural talent, but more than anything, the key is practice. Many, many hours of it. Mastering the craft of drumming takes time.

 

These simple principles are applicable for virtually any area of life, whether it’s academics, marriage, parenting, business, sports, hobbies, or even spiritual growth. Especially for spiritual growth.

 

When I committed my life to follow Jesus Christ many years ago, I definitely didn’t know what I didn’t know. I understood Jesus had died on the cross for my sins, and I needed to receive what Romans 6:23 calls “the gift of God” to experience His forgiveness and the assurance of eternal life. I knew the Bible had an Old Testament and a New Testament, and was familiar with some of the Scriptures’ key individuals. 

 

However, I knew little of what the so-called “Christian life” is all about, I didn’t know trials and adversity are building blocks for strengthening one’s faith. I didn’t know we can’t successfully live a godly life in our own strength – believe me, I tried. I didn’t know what it meant to have a sense of divine calling, or that God gives each believer one or more spiritual gifts. I definitely had no understanding of how practical biblical teaching is for many areas of life, things like handling money, navigating the challenges of married life, raising kids, building relationships, making decisions, becoming a leader, and many others.

 

Then I began learning the truth of passages like 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

Similarly, I also didn’t understand the vital role of time in developing spiritual maturity. Just as seeds planted in a garden take time to grow and produce flowers, fruit or vegetables, the Word of God, which is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12), takes time to take root and bear spiritual fruit. 

 

I recall attending a weekly men’s Bible study many years ago and marveling at how some of the guys there could navigate the Scriptures to answer questions that came up for discussion. “How do they do that?” I’d wonder. Getting to know some of those men, I realized they hadn’t acquired their familiarity with the Scriptures overnight. 

 

The Bible speaks to this in many ways. For example, in writing to his protégé, Timothy, the apostle Paul admonished him, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). 

 

Psalms opens with the declaration, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). Much later in the Psalms we read, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word. I will seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:9-11).

 

“Being diligent.” “Meditating day and night.” “Hiding [God’s] words in my heart.” Each of those statements, along with other passages in both the Old and New Testaments, suggest a combination of time, effort and determination. There’s no such thing as an overnight success spiritually.

 

On several occasions, Paul used the metaphor of being an athletic competitor to describe the dedication and commitment necessary to become a fruitful follower of Jesus. He observed, ”Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training…I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

 

Whether striving to be an accomplished drummer or an unwavering disciple of Christ, there’s always something yet to be learned – things you didn’t know you didn’t know. And even the most seasoned believer, even if he or she has been walking with Jesus for many years and has read through the Bible numerous times, still has more race to run. 

 

Nearing the end of his life, Paul wrote, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it…. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Even after a bountifully fruitful life of ministry, Paul didn’t feel as if he had yet arrived. What does that say about us?

Life – It’s Really Just the Tip of the Drumstick

The other day at my drum lesson, I had a bit of an epiphany (not to be confused with tympani). My teacher, who like me had met AARP membership criteria long ago, and I got into a conversation about the brevity of life and how the majority of our earthly existence is already behind us.  

As we were chatting, I glanced at the tip of one of my drumsticks. The tip is less than one-half inch, while the entire stick is more than 16 inches long. A drummer uses the entire drumstick, of course, but the tip is where the action is. This prompted me to think about the span of one’s life here on earth, compared to eternity. 

 

The average American lives well beyond the age of 70, although we all know of people who passed away much younger. And there are many people living well into their 80’s, 90’s, and some past 100. That seems like a long time, but as a little girl once said, “Eternity – well, that’s like forever!” Yep, a very, very long time.

 

Which begs the question, if our time on earth is equivalent to the tip of a drumstick, while the entire drumstick (and beyond) represents eternity, why are we so focused on just the tip?

 

Skeptics might contend that this life is all there is, there’s nothing after we die. If that’s the case, we might do well to consider the somewhat pessimistic perspective of the author of Ecclesiastes, who wrote, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 8:15). Eat, drink and be merry, ‘cause tomorrow you may die! 

 

However, the same book’s writer also observed, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In response to the plaintive question of the old song, “Is that all there is?”, the Bible teaches emphatically, “No, that’s not all there is.”

 

The Scriptures don’t sugarcoat the reality of life. As it says in James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.” The New International translates the word as “mist.” Vapor or mist, neither is anything you can hang onto for long.

 

But rather than telling us to resign ourselves to a relatively short-lived existence, the Bible is filled with passages and promises that essentially tell us, “Quit concentrating on the tip of the drumstick and learn to value the entire stick.”

 

In what’s perhaps the best-known verse of Scripture, John 3:16, we’re told, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This isn’t referring to the fabled fountain of youth that Ponce de Leon searched for, but life that continues long after we take our last breath on planet Earth. 

 

The apostle John expanded on this when he wrote, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12-13).

 

Speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and Jewish leader, Jesus Christ referred to this when He said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).

 

On another occasion, Jesus assured His followers, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Another translation terms it “abundant life.” Either way, He was not referencing hefty wallets and investment portfolios, shiny cars and grandiose houses, but life for all of eternity with our Heavenly Father.

 

Writing a final charge to his protégé, Timothy, the apostle Paul clearly understood there’s more to life than what he’d experienced on “terra firma.” With his sights set on what awaited him, Paul declared: 

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, for which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

 

Even though in Romans 6:13 he wrote about our offering ourselves as “instruments of righteousness,” I don’t think he had drums or even drumsticks in mind. But he might have appreciated that metaphor for pondering this life and the life to come.

 

How about us? Is our concentration fixed totally on this particular moment, tomorrow or next month, or have we given thought to what is, as Paul phrased it, “in store” for us in eternity, beyond the “drum tip” of everyday life?