I want to make something very clear before I start: Some people have recently confronted me with the fact that many people don’t believe that there is a God (or that he is not who he says he is). A few people have even unfriended me on Facebook out of anger because I say what I know to be true (How’s that for religious tolerance? I could understand leaving my website group, but wow…). They think that my approach to reasoning through these discourses is flawed because I assume that everyone agrees that God exists. The thing is, if we are going to be held accountable for the things we did here on earth after we die, and if God did reveal his word to us which we are expected to obey, and he did make the atoning sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven provided that we believe and behave in accordance with that belief, then that changes everything. To not mention God in my arguments would be to say things that I don’t believe to be true. If you want to say anything about how to live life at all, you have to choose whether you’re living for yourself, or living for the Creator. I happen to know God, and I happen to talk to him every day through prayer and the study of his word. I don’t simply think he exists; I know he does and I’m in very good company. I will never post anything outside this context. Moving on…
Not professional in the sense that one is trained and very good at what they do, but simply in that one makes most of their income from writing and playing music. My new CD, Purpose, is hopefully coming this June (although it may end up being later since life keeps happening) and it has been causing me to reflect very deeply on the purpose God intended music to serve. Each purpose that I’ve considered while writing the music for this project does not seem to require the existence of professional musicians. While the project itself proves that a very high artistic level is pleasing, it is being done by students who will probably never make the majority of their income from performing or composing. If I myself stay the course I am on, I will never be a professional composer but I will be a teacher. For some time now I’ve been bitter about this and have had a desire to make a valiant attempt to work out a way for professional composers to actually exist to the extent that I could hope to become one. But I’m beginning to see that the purpose of music can be fulfilled without people generating most of their income from it.
At this point we have to establish what purpose God originally intended music to fulfill. My subjective explanation is that the all encompassing purpose of music is to communicate difficult concepts decisively and in a different way. For example, I was told by many people that my abortion piece provoked tears. This indicates to me that the music effectively communicated what I intended, which was to depict abortion for what it is. Obviously, God has blessed that work with the ability to communicate its intended message very effectively. To me this is a clear demonstration that music can teach us things that can be difficult to express in other ways. That piece taught me personally just how awful and devastating abortion is, and yet I’ve perceived countless hours of very good presentations devoted to the subject. Once I finished that recording and listened to it, I understood the situation much more clearly than I ever had previously. “Music is communication.”
In order for this purpose of effective teaching/communication to be fulfilled, musicians being paid is not at all a prerequisite. Replace my proposed purpose with something else and you will most likely be able to reach the same conclusion. Extensive knowledge and skill is a prerequisite, but myself and all of the people I call my peers are already fulfilling these purposes and none of us are making a living by making music. Apparently music’s purpose is being fulfilled without any significant amount of money being paid.
I suppose I must now address how I justify undergraduate and graduate level studies while knowing that my education is relatively useless for generating a larger income. As believers, since when has anything God led us to do been for the sake of our own selfish pleasure? Since when has God called us to make an enormous commitment like college in order to indulge our desire for more wealth? My education in music composition has not been for the sake of me generating an income, but rather to serve by effectively communicating truth that can’t be expressed in any other way. I would not be able to write like I do had I not had the training that God clearly called me to endure. Graduate study has been the only way for me to be prepared to serve the church in the way that God wants me to serve.
Don’t just give a gift, be a gift.