Maestro! May My Eyes and Heart Be on You!

Maestro definition: Master Conductor, expert, genius, prodigy, pro, virtuoso, a great or distinguished figure in any sphere.

I’m sure you’ve been there when an orchestra is tuning up before their concert. All of those musicians are doing their own thing to check out their instrument – to be sure it’s in tune. Those players are not in sync or in harmony. How could anything beautiful come from what sounds so disharmonious and chaotic. But, in a matter of minutes, it is like a switch was flipped and the Maestro appears. He tap, tap taps his baton and, voila, the chaos turns into the most melodic, rhythmic, harmonious, sweet sounding and beautiful music. The appearance of the Maestro changed everything. Every eye and ear of the orchestra was set on their Maestro, and he guided them through a symphony of delight to all who were captured by the richness of their symphony.

If there were no Maestro, the musicians would continue to be doing their own thing that continued to result in an abundance of NOISE. Isn’t that similar to our world today? So much noise of anger, animosity, dissension and voices of “know it alls” – so much criticism of this and that in our world with CHAOS abounding.

On Ash Wednesday, last week – the day when many Christians went to church to focus on their MAESTRO and it was also the day when yet another tragic shooting took place in a Florida school. The perpetrator’s maestro was not God but the enemy of his soul. The reaction by the NOISY masses was “We need gun control. We need more mental illness awareness.” In the meantime, the ONE – the MAESTRO – our Creator – had been terminated from schools. Our MAESTRO was no longer welcomed in prayer or any other acknowledgement of Him. I can’t help but believe if God were still allowed in our schools, it would be very different today.

My point today is welcoming our MAESTRO to lead again because when He is leading – a spectacular symphony is heard. And in similar ways, our lives create a beautiful symphony of harmony and melodic music when we depend, rely, and fully follow the direction of our Maestro – our Master Conductor. There may be chaos, disharmony and disagreement on so many levels around us, but if OUR eyes and OUR ears are fixed on the peace, joy, and harmony that God represents in our lives and when we follow His lead, He will turn the chaos and disharmony of our life into a beautiful symphony of peace. That music will be a sweet, sweet sound in His ears and in the ears of those in our life. I think of the prayer of St. Francis as I type this post, "Lord, make me an "instrument" of your peace!" May peace be the song in our heart, in our mind, and in our mouth as we follow our Maestro's lead.

I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice
To worship You, oh my soul, rejoice!
Take joy my King in what You hear.
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

Psalm 57:7 "My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music."

The Expert in Anything Had to BEGIN

Ever look at someone and wish you had their talents or abilities or strengths and just wish you had even a portion of what they have? They, too, were at their beginning.....they had to learn; they had to spend hours developing their gifts; they had to be willing to be trained, they had to grow.

I became a pilot, a pianist and organist, a teacher, a securities broker and a real estate broker -- not to mention all the other things I've gone on to do -- because of training, studying, practicing....and determination, And, now, I've gone on to become quite accomplished in the world of technology.

Several years ago, I bought a cell phone that did it all -- talk, text, email, photos, music, internet, games. The nice guy at AT&T set it up for me. I was a happy camper -- ONLY $150 a month for my phone and service. But then, two years ago, my son created a social commerce company, Solavei to lower the cost of commerce and make it even profitable. I was excited to switch my mobile service to Solavei ($100/mo savings) and help people save, too. And in so doing learned more in this world of technology. Now, I am often the AT&T guy -- helping my friends and family get set up on Solavei -- and the best part, it also meant a $100/mo savings ($1,200 a year) for me -- not to mention, thousands of people have joined my network so I even have residual monthly income coming in. Who would have thought that this Nana would be competent in this world of technology? No one, including myself, but I was willing to grow, to be trained, to develop my gifts and to learn. I often laugh at myself when I'm talking about APN settings, MVNO, bandwidth, CDMA vs GSM, etc.

And what about you? What have you stretched yourself to become and do? God planted seeds inside you for you to cultivate and grow. Sure it may take hours and hours of training -- but isn't that what we did as youngsters when we began to read and write and learn arithmetic? Why would we stop now? Let's continue to take leaps of faith to become the best we can be! It comes with great reward. Now, let's wake up those seeds and cause them to GROW, today!!