Playing Our Best For Him

I've not been into Christmas Carols this year.  Being a Florida girl in Illinois, I am unable to get into songs like "Let in Snow" - the words just won't come out.  So, in an effort to get in the mood and not leak my disinterest to those around me, I put on Christmas music super loud while cleaning the house (the only way I can clean).  It worked.  I only needed one song to hold onto, and I found it.  Little Drummer Boy.  And not just any version, For King and Country's.  It's the only one that really gets the point across.  I had it on repeat all day.  The Biebs does have an amazing version, too, which comes in a close second.  But here's the one I love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=5l1CS0Jhk90

The reason I like this one (and Bieber's) so much is that they really do "play their BEST for Him".  They don't hold anything back.  They're not just trying to sound good vocally - they're putting it all out there.  They make me want to do the same - with my life, as if it were a drum.

"...and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him.  Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Mt 2:10-11

These were huge gifts.  Not that the King needed them, but they wanted to present their best to him.  The Drummer Boy did not have gifts to bring The King.  He brought all he had - his talent and his heart.  John Piper from Desiring God says this about the gifts we bring our King:

"The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ Himself - When you give a gift to Christ like this, it's a way of saying the joy that I pursue is not the hope of getting rich with things from you - but for Yourself - this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things, in the hope of enjoying you more - because You are my Treasure, not these things." 

I believe that this is what this song means.  When we play our best for Him, we are worshipping Him with our life.  We are giving Him something that we no longer want to hold on to because we cannot embrace all that He is and all of the joy that He brings us if we keep it.

"Authentic Spirituality is about letting go - letting go of what we don't need" (Richard Rohr)

When we become spiritually authentic, we see with His eyes and feel with His heart and are thus filled with compassion for those He has compassion on because the image we have been trying to maintain has dissolved.  We are not worried about how we sound or look, nor do we fear where He may be leading us.  We can play our best for Him when He hands us His drumsticks and we have both hands free to hold them and play that which brings Him joy.

Then He smiled at me.

And we said why, Lord?  Why are you smiling at me?  We haven't given you great gifts, nor are we talented enough to play an instrument worthy of your praise?   And He responded:

"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." (Mt 25:35-36)

This is our drum.  It is why we are here.  He is living in each individual.  Who will we choose to see?  How will we respond?  Don't hold anything back.
This is how we can play our best for Him, and how we enjoy Him more.

Flickr photos: Terry White & Roger Reuver