Questions...and Answers.

This one verse in council time at awana today was particularly striking. I'm not quite sure why. I've known this verse for like...ever.

But it ties in so beautifully with what I was talking about in my last post.

The verse was Psalm 119:9 - How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.

That verse has never hit me in the way it did tonight...I think it was due to the fact that the speaker used a different version. I'm not sure which one it was, but I came home and looked a bunch up. See if it says anymore to you by reading it different versions.

NIV - How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.

NASB - How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.

MSG - How can a young person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.

NLT - How can a young person stay pure?
By obeying your word.

ESV - How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.

I particularly enjoyed the different words used in place of "taking heed"

By...
living my life according to God's word
keeping my life in line with God's word
reading the directions in God's word
obeying God's word
guarding my life according to God's word

It makes me curious to know what the original Hebrew word was.

Taking heed - that's to listen, take note, and pay attention to.
Living - that's to align all aspects of my life according to what I just took heed of
Keeping - that's maintaining it: always
Reading - that's to always be looking for more: studying, searching, desiring more of Christ
Obeying - that's to do exactly what it says, exactly how it says, exactly when God says to
Guarding - that's not letting anything else take place of our one focus: Christ

How can we live pure lives, lives centered on Christ? It's simple: listening and obeying the instructions He's given us in the Bible. Funny the revelations you have late at night....

Now doing that isn't so simple - but we have the power of Christ to guide us.

Dear Schubert,
Thank you for writing such a beautiful piece. I love playing it. I am, however, not particularly fond of SEVEN FLATS and random accidentals all over the place.
Sincerely,
Hannah

It Really Doesn't End

So, I finally got around to recording my Chopin with the motivation of getting it done in time to enter it into a competition our local radio station was holding. (which explains the nerdy intro at the beginning =P )

And now I'm on youtube. O.o

=P

Anyway, here it is. I failed the left hand in one part and ruined another chord at the end, and wasn't as pleased with the emotions that came out this time around......but it was alright, and it does more justice to this post. The thing about playing such an emotionally deep piece is that you get something just a little bit different every time.

I was wearing such a formal dress because of my co-op semi formal later that evening which I will have pictures for later. Sorry the video is so big.

Here's an excerpt from that post:

I like to call a piece of joyful serenity made perfect with pain and sweetened with God's grace, blessings, and love.

It's the joy you find in the midst of the pain.
The peace you find to accept what you have lost.
The grace God gives you to give up what you know you cannot keep.
The blessings He lavishes upon you to show you His everlasting, eternal, all-encompassing love.

It's not bittersweet, because it's not both at once. It's not just plain happiness, because there is pain in there.

You've probably heard that it's the darkness that makes the light beautiful. It's the pain that makes the healing wonderful.

This piece is a full, deep, meaningful joy that you won't experience fully unless you have endured the pain beforehand.

There are so many different feelings you can pull out of this piece, and that's why I love it.

It really has astonished me how many different ways you can play this piece, and the depth of emotion you are constantly finding. My sister and I were talking today about how positively deep music is - it never ends! There's always something new. You can spend months on one piece and still find new and exciting things in it.

The other day, I discovered "righteous anger" in the cadenza. (the really fast chromatic part at the end) Maybe it was because I had just watched this speech on abortion, or because I was feeling particularly angry at things I felt were not my fault.

Other times, the cadenza just screams "Why, God??"

But my favorite part is at the end. I discovered how to play the last two chords in a way that almost guarantee that the right notes are voiced. Part of it was that I put the words "Be Still" on those two chords.

So many times in life I don't understand why things are a certain way, why people do things the way they do, or how there ever could be an end.

But God always says,

Be....Still.

Listen for that at the end.




PS - Some other time, if anyone cares to listen, I'll geek out to you about different parts of that Chopin and how amazing they are (as if this weren't enough), as well as the intricate emotions I think Chopin put there; or perhaps I'll show you my Beethoven. ;)