heart & soul

my beloved mother is a piano teacher. i spent countless days after school listening to her piano students bang on the piano & i guess i've done my fair share of banging too. piano lessons are somewhat long suffering.

you must practice.

you must do your theory homework.

you must practice.

but if you have a good teacher like my mom you can learn.

for those of you who didn't participate in lessons odds are you only have learned chopsticks or my personal favorite:heart & soul. if you're lucky maybe you learned i dropped my dolly in the dirt. i could continue with a post about piano and the songs learned, but i'd rather write about heart & soul.

you see, i ran across the story of jonathan in 1 samuel the other day. i'm no theologian so you should go read the story yourself, but i was drawn to chapter 14...the story of jonathan & his armor bearer.

i don't know much about armor bearers except that they were supposedly the ones who carried the shield & armor of their leader. sounds like a pretty important job. so jonathan and his armor bearer leave the group, not telling his father saul, and scripture says this in verse 6:

"Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few." And his armor-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish.Behold, I am with you heart and soul."

i just LOVE the response of his armor bearer: "do all that is in your heart, do as you wish. i am with you heart & soul." it is a picture of friendship, a picture of trust.

jonathan was trusting the Lord and confident knowing that the Lord could save with many or with few and he had a friend who was willing to stand beside him in the same confidence. sometimes the battles we face seem too big or too hard, even if we know it's what we are called to walk through, it's still hard not to turn away or make excuses. jonathan didn't have to go over to the Phillistine outpost, but he did. his armor bearer didn't have to follow, but he did. so they walked and eventually walked into a battle having to trust that God would see them through. as the story unfolds you see how God uses these two men in a battle and gives them the victory.

sometimes there are stories in scripture that move me to tears; stories such as...

...the adultress woman

...ruth and boaz

...sarah

...job

...hosea

...and the armor bearer

the armor bearer has reminded me of the beauty of friendship. the joy that comes from the faithfulness of standing beside another & being willing to go to battle with them. saying i'm with you, "heart & soul"

maybe i can relate more to jonathan than i can the armor bearer because i honestly have the greatest friends and family in the world who have said time & again, "...and i'll be beside you, heart & soul." i am eternally grateful and i hope to grow into the same kind of friend.

back to playing the piano...i don't think it's a coincidence that in order to play heart & soul correctly, it takes two people.

we need people.

we need those who will stand beside us.

we need to trust.

it's good for our heart & our soul.

if you don't believe me just go sit at a piano and try to play by yourself, it's just not the same

because it wasn't meant to be.