uncovered

February 8, 2006

my last vocal lesson of 2005 was not with my regular vocal teacher. it was with her husband. i was eagerly anticipating the lesson because initially, i had wanted a male teacher (i figured working with a male would be easier and make more sense, but i couldn't find a teacher so i ended up going with a female teacher). i got there and met her husband. immediately, i noticed his teaching style was quite different from his wife's, but i had no issues with that. we talked for a bit and then started with the normal vocal warmups i was used to doing.

but something happened that day. he made a comment about the way i was singing. it was what i expected. over the past few months, i realized that i had a tendency to expel way too much air, resulting in a very light and breathy sound. i thought it was just a problem i had to deal with and get over eventually. he proceeded to imitate what i did and showed me that i didn't have to do that. he simply suggested to me that i open up my jaw more. that's all it took.

i was shocked! i couldn't believe my own ears. was that really my voice? where was the volume and power coming from? i sat down for a while, dumbfounded at what just happened. my teacher could tell how taken aback i was. he made a comment about how it happens to a lot of people when that moment of realization happens. the funny thing is, while my intention of taking vocal lessons was to uncover my true voice, i never had any picture of what it would be like.

after my lesson, i was thinking about what had happened. i believe there was a time where i had that same sort of voice, but i always thought it was me just messing around. i never thought that to be my true voice. i think what happened over time, was that i developped a mental picture of what a good voice should sound like. as i grew up, i began to emulate that sound because it was all i heard. so when i messed around, i never once thought that could be my natural voice. it sounded far too different and foreign from the majority. over time, this fake voice of mine became what i thought to be my natural voice.

i think the same thing happens to Christians. it's so easy for the Christian life to become a shadow of the real thing.
whether we like it or not, our culture has a huge influence on us. for the most part, we are unaware of it's messages, it's values, and it's ethics because we are simply too close to it. little by little, we become more and more conformed to the world. the church is in no way exempt from this. messages of individualism and consumerism permeate into our faith. without realizing it, we start buying into the lies of the world.

i think the heart of this problem is our concept of individualism. our lives become me-centric. it becomes about my goals, my dreams, my aspirations, my stuff, my plans, my everything. individualism makes being a Christian very difficult, because it creates a tension between God's plans and mine. we see our lives as being ours, not something entrusted to us by God. Christianity can become self-serving. people pray for their own prosperity and success. they believe that because they've accepted Christ, everything in life will be smooth sailing. they believe that will be financially blessed by God. do you see the problem? life becomes all about US.

we need to see culture's influence on the church for what it is. we need to start asking hard questions about why we do the things we do. we also need to examine our thoughts, values and ethics. are they biblical? or are they a result of the culture around us? are we merely copying/imitating what we see? it's possible that the Christian life we are living now is just a shadow of the real thing. maybe we're simply going through the motions of what could truly be transforming.

my point is this: far too many Christians are not truly living the Christian life in all its richness and fullness. they haven't uncovered what Christianity is really about. if we look around us, we see many Christians that are mediocre, defeated, jaded, cynical, religious, materialistic, vengeful, destructive, selfish, apathetic, unloving, hypocritical, holier-than-thou... you get the point. yes, sin and spiritual warfare are significant factors, but we need to understand that there is so much more to our lives that we could ever dream of. wouldn't it be a thing of beauty of Christians were living the life they were meant to live, the way God intended it to be? if the church was thriving like it did in the acts 2?

i am not going to post any answers to these questions, but instead, suggest that it be something you think and reflect on. the answers are all throughout Scriptures. i'm still learning about who i am and i'm far from being able to answers these questions to such an extent that it influences my thoughts, my words and my actions. but, i know that when i am able to do so, i will have a much better picture of who God created me to be and that this life would take on a whole new perspective.

Posted by Leo Chan at February 8, 2006 9:03 PM