As frequently happens, yesterday I found something for which I’d been futilely searching only while looking for an entirely different item. It was a clipping I had cut out of the paper years ago, containing a quotation from Van Cliburn on what is necessary for a career as a pianist.
“I think,” he said, “the most important thing about going into classical music is that one must love it more than anything else in the world, and to feel that without it his life would be incomplete, so that he must have it at all costs, all expense, for the rest of his life.”
Jesus would probably have recognized the feeling. Here is how he describes the longing for the kingdom of heaven:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46)
I was never inclined to practice the piano eight hours a day, so obviously the desire (not to mention the talent) needed to become a concert pianist was insufficient. But what about my desire for God’s kingdom (or “reign” as the Greek word basileia is probably more accurately translated)? What about my love for Jesus? (Origen described Jesus as ho autobasileia — in other words, Jesus is himself the reign of God.) Am I ready to run and sell all for the One who gave all for me? Or am I willing only to bargain and barter little bits of my heart?
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. (Philippians 3:7-9)