Notes About Life: 5 - Late

"...to be a great musician, come in late." 

Believe it or not, that was the (paraphrased) end of a quote from my piano teacher. As someone who tortured my early piano teachers with my resistance to use a metronome (and was tortured by my mother who told me to practice without ever turning the metronome off), I was shocked to hear this doctor of music suggest that the greatest musicians typically come in late! 

I happen to know that if you tell a dancer you're in dance class that doesn't emphasize exact timing on that "5, 6, 7, 8" beat they will look at you like you're crazy, assume you've never taken a dance class before, and proceed to lecture you on the importance of perfect timing. I know this because I made the mistake of doing it. I have regretted it ever since. 

Yet there I was, in the middle of a piano masterclass, and Dr. V. was saying something to the effect of -- 

If you come in early you just sound like you're rushing... (That sort of playing gives everyone an anxiety attack.)

If you come in on time you sound like a metronome... (Was that not the point of practicing with a metronome for hours and hours?)

If you come in really late you sound like a bad musician... (To the poor kid who played the triangle late in their elementary school music class, I feel for you!)

Great musicians come in late. Not too late, but just late enough to control the sound, change the feel of the piece, build anticipation, and make the piece their own. 

As a teenager, I was just excited that I finally had a reason to ditch my metronome. Well, I tried to. It didn't go over well with my mom :) However, I also enjoyed pondering how the principle of being late might apply to other areas in my life. Where in life might I achieve greatness by arriving somewhere late? 

The unfortunate truth? Nowhere. In life it's really not a good idea to show up late. Employers don't appreciate (and some don't even tolerate) tardiness. Friends become frustrated if they can't rely on you to be there when they need you. Your own body doesn't even tolerate you being chronically late--late sleep, late food, late exercise, late care, they all cause breakdowns and problems. Cars aren't super fond of people running late and running lights or running into them. 

I suppose that my inability to successfully come in late in life means that I am a terrible life musician. My efforts to show up early end in a rush of stress and confusion. My efforts to be on time lead to monotony and rigidity. I usually do show up late, but feel like I miss important information, time on my payroll, and don't feel at all like I'm good at life. No matter which way I look at it, I seem to be merely mediocre at the timing of life. 

On the bright side I do know of one famous and great life musician. His name is God. It's funny to watch Him work, actually, especially since in the Christian community there's this tendency to discuss God's "perfect timing". It does often seem like He has perfect timing, doesn't it? After all, things always seem to happen just when they need to. In a few hilarious examples of this recently, my husband and I were discussing a important issue in our relationship only to have exactly what we were discussing come up in a book we'd been listening to later that day. I actually exclaimed, "Turn it off! Turn it off! I don't want to hear it again!" (Mostly because I was the one who needed the reminder). Today I needed to make some tortillas but didn't have one of the ingredients. I called my mom just as she was about to throw away that very ingredient. 

Perfect timing? You might think so. But the truth is, all of those things actually happened late. I'd been putting off tortilla-making for weeks and almost postponed it again today. The issue in our relationship had been building to a stressful point for quite some time before we finally had a breakthrough conversation and then heard a confirmation that we'd come to the right conclusions. 

I often ask God, "Couldn't you have let us read that part of the book sooner? Before we had such an issue? If the answer was there all along, why didn't you give it to us 'on time'"? 

The answer is found in my professor's statement and the fact that God is a great musician. If He were to come in early He'd be rushing us through life and experiences. He'd give us the resolution to our problems and disharmony before we were ready. If He came in on time we wouldn't appreciate the answers when we got them. They'd just fall into place like ticks on a clock, expected, unsurprising, unanticipated, and unrewarding. If He came in too late He'd be a bad musician, leaving us in a mess with unresolved melodies and mistimed cymbals crashing. No, God is a great musician so He comes in late. 

Not too late, but just late enough to build anticipation as the harmonies become momentarily discordant, with just enough stress that we recognize and relish the resolution when it comes. Just late enough to control the situation, to make the piece His own. He's always just late enough that when He comes we're ready in a way that we would never be if He came in perfect timing. 

So the next time you're wondering where God is and why He hasn't answer yet, why He hasn't "come in", don't give up on Him! He hasn't failed you! The song hasn't gone wrong. He's just coming in late and when He does make His entrance, all that tension will release into the most glorious song of love and peace you could ever imagine--a peace you would never feel if He never came in late.