Appreciation

I appreciate music. I suppose most people do. Recently though.... I came across an interesting class you can take in school, Music Appreciation. Hm, says I, I wonder what goes on with something like that? So after jumping around on the web for a while, (not the sticky version, that doesn't work to well and it's very hard to find one big enough) finding out what music appreciation classes are all about, I came to some conclusions.

Music appreciation, good. Learning why people listened to what they listened to in the past, good. Listening to music.....

Um.....what?

Well it makes sense that a class called "music appreciation" would involve listening to music, but the reality is, how much music do you already listen to every day? If it were as easy as that, then everybody would appreciate music. How much music does the average American citizen listen to in a day? An hour? Our household has music nearly non-stop, but I don't think that's the norm.

If you really want to appreciate music, then make music. Grab yourself an instrument and flail away. Play a shredding guitar riff, pound the drums to oblivion with meticulously timed rhythms, or play a swelling piano sonata with a light and graceful touch.

'Cause when I do that, I really appreciate those....who can actually do it.

And if you want to appreciate carpentry, make a cabinet. Construct a building that doesn't fall down. Appreciate authorship by writing a book. Appreciate art my making some art. It applies to all sorts of things.

Interestingly, we always try to appreciate things by talking and thinking about them, but never doing them ourselves. All the while, we try to appreciate God by making him.

But God is not of the world. He cannot be appreciated by making him, because it's simply not possible. The only thing commonly recognized as something powerful, and we're trying to make it?

I don't know. We're just not using our minds anymore, when we think that we can make something that made us, it's outside of the definitions. The whole point is that the maker is the maker, and he exists in his way, no matter what we may think. That's not something that changes, like music or books, or buildings and cars that do. It's one thing to think that the maker doesn't exist, that's a whole 'nuther dealie, but it's a completely different story when you're dealing with the concept of a creator that always was. A creator unchanging and surpassing human limits.

Everything in the world changes, can be made and shaped, can be appreciated through the making. But God, God is appreciated through listening and seeing and experiencing, and so much more, because he never changes. Which means that what you discover of him will always remain true. Let that reassure you. Dig deep, and if I could make a suggestion, start with the book of John in the bible. And feel free to drop me a question in a comment if you want.