Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

“…keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.”  Hebrews 12:2

I tend to be a perfectionist.  I think most musicians are; however, I believe my fellow worship team members and I are starting to realize that our attempts at perfection sometimes hinder us from the things that really matter.  I’m not sure why we are all coming to this realization about the same time, but for me this mindset started a few years ago, around this time of year.

I love nativity sets and enjoy placing them throughout the house during the Christmas season.  Although I have a nativity that belonged to my grandma and others from around the globe, my favorite is one that I purchased for myself when I was a child.  Each Christmas, I pull it out of storage, carefully unwrap and set each piece out until it looks perfect.  One evening, my nieces were at the house enjoying a fun night with Auntie.  We had a picnic on the living room floor and were busy making crafts when one of the girls got up and started playing with my nativity set.  She eventually lost interest and joined me and her sisters back on the floor.  When they left later that night, I immediately went to “fix” my nativity so it would look perfect again.  Instead, I kneeled down in front of it and realized a profound lesson that had just been taught to me by a six year old child.  Because in my attempt to make things perfect, I forgot what was really important.  Here is a picture I took of my nativity that evening.

I believe it was in this moment that I stopped trying to be a perfectionist.  I realized that no matter how well we play or sing (or do anything else, for that matter), if our eyes are not on Jesus, it is meaningless.  That night, when C. turned my nativity around so that everyone (including the donkey, camel and a little lamb) was looking at Jesus, I couldn’t help but think of the words to an old hymn:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

I hope that through our worship, we always remember to play and sing our best.  He deserves our best.  But more than that, I hope that through our worship, we always keep our eyes on Him, the source and perfecter of our faith.

 

Celebrating the Perfect One given for imperfect me,

Shelley