Are You Out of Practice?
The philosopher Thomas Hobbes had a rather pessimistic view of human nature. In his famous book Leviathan, Hobbes wrote, “life for most people is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” According to Hobbes, unless we hand over control of our lives to an all-powerful authority, say, a King, we will destroy ourselves.
Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) frontispiece
The humorist Mark Twain, on the other hand, believed that people by nature are compassionate and that our dark natures are created by civilization. In other words, we enter the world basically good but are led astray by other people.
How does the Bible respond to these two very different perspectives on human nature? One can make a case that the Bible would say “yes” to both Hobbes and Twain. On the one hand, the Bible describes the nature of a human being as sinful, imprisoned between walls of selfishness, greed, with insatiable appetites for a variety of perverse behaviors. On the other hand, the Bible pictures human beings as the crown of God’s creation, closer to God’s divine nature than even the heavenly beings.
Human beings are, to put it mildly, a paradox. We are capable of incomprehensible evil, but we are also capable of enormous good. What determines the direction our lives take? How do we become people that fulfill Twain’s understanding of human nature and avoid Hobbes’ dark side?
At first blush, we might say religion is what makes the difference, particularly the Christian religion. When a person believes in Jesus and trusts Jesus with his life, a transformation takes place and that person becomes a new creation. Certainly, I think that the Christian faith can make a remarkable difference for good in a person’s life. During my years as a pastor, I saw firsthand the difference that Christ can make in a person’s life for good.
Yet, we have all known people, or have heard of people, who were stellar Christians, lived exemplary lives, and then committed some transgression, some inexplicable act of poor behavior that shocked the faith community. How could someone we admired, respected, and looked up to have strayed so far from God’s way of life?
Maybe becoming a person of faith is only the starting point for changing our human nature. Maybe spiritual transformation happens gradually. Perhaps something else is needed if we are to live a consistently good life and rise above our sinful, brutish instincts.
Yesterday, my wife and I attended a church service where our 17-year-old neighbor played the piano. I have known this young man since he was three-years-old or so. He played a piece composed by Frederic Chopin. He played with passion, skill, and energy. He was magnificent! The congregation was deeply moved.
My wife and I listened with rapt attention. To say we were amazed would be an understatement! It had been years since we last heard him play and his improvement was startling. We remembered walking by his house years earlier, listening to him as a beginner picking at the keys. The sound penetrated through the walls of his living room and flowed out to the front yard. Even though we couldn’t see him play, we could picture him searching the keyboard for the right key after he hit a wrong note. In those early years, our young friend, John, certainly wasn’t playing Chopin. He was just trying to learn the basics of the piano.
John stayed with it, though. Each morning, or sometimes late in the afternoon, when we walked our white terrier-mix past his house, we could hear John practicing. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, our determined friend kept at it. Slowly the music became recognizable, and we remarked to each other that he was improving. Sometimes it felt like he was playing just for us as we walked past his house, but of course he didn’t even know we were outside listening and admiring his steady improvement.
Then yesterday we listened to our young neighbor. No longer was he a little boy searching for the right key. Now he is an accomplished pianist, playing before hundreds of attentive listeners a classical piece of music by one of the world’s foremost composers.
It would be interesting to know how many hours of practice time John has invested in his piano. Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of practice hours were required in order for John to play a three or four minute composition by Chopin.
For our friend to become a highly skilled musician, he had to practice hour after hour, day after day. And, if he is to maintain his skill level, he must continue to practice, continue to improve for the remainder of his playing career. He will never outgrow his need to practice.
I’ve thought a lot about my young neighbor over the last day or two. I think his life of self-discipline teaches an important lesson in the Christian faith. Much like John’s piano practice, people of faith must practice Christian virtues day after day, month after month, and year after year. We will never outgrow our need to practice. We don’t become accomplished Christians by joining the church or even by being baptized; we learn to live good lives only by doing good. We must work to be generous by giving to charities and to the poor; we have to learn to be less self-centered by doing for others and by putting their needs above our own. We master self-discipline, not by lashing out at those who hurt our feelings or rub us the wrong way, but by returning the evil done to us with good.
In other words, we must continually practice doing good. If we are to rise above our dark human nature and become the people we were meant to be, we must practice virtuous living as a lifestyle. It will not come easy for most of us. We will be tempted to quit or take an easier path. Others will try to dissuade us from following the Jesus way. But if we are to become our best selves, the people we were created to be, we must consistently practice good, even when, especially when, we don’t feel like it.
Practice may not make us perfect, but practice will make our lives music to God’s ears.
