Anyone Need a Tambourine Player?

I've always wanted to be a live musician.

Ever since college I've been using that analogy to describe the perfect job. My perfect job will never involve a public musical performance, unless doing push-ups to the chorus of Vanilla Ice's classic "Ice Ice Baby" at weddings counts. However, I've always wanted to look like a live musician in a job I choose to do.

If you've ever seen any really good musicians playing live, you know what I'm talking about. The really good ones are not only fantastically skilled, they also make it look easy and appear to be having the time of their lives. They are beside themselves, lost in the passion and skill of doing what they love really, really well. When Emily and I attended Orchard Hill Church in college, there were two individuals there who were phenomenal. Both named Tim, one of them played guitar, and the other played the drums. They were unbelievable. I got a ton of joy just watching them play, and it is only a small fraction of the joy it looked like they were having making music.

This weekend Emily and I, along with my cousin and her boyfriend, went to see Blues Traveler play. John Popper, the band's lead man, was phenomenal. Another friend of mine was there, and while we were listening to Popper do things on the harmonica no human should be capable of doing, we openly hoped the band would be in need of a couple of tambourine players for their next tour. At one point I turned to my friend, an avid exerciser, and said, "Can you believe he's getting paid to do this?! It's like you getting paid for running."

And there it is. That's the beauty of being a live musician in whatever career field you've chosen.

I've also grown up a little bit since college, and I've come to understand a few things about this dream. First of all, no perfect job exists. No matter what job you are in, no matter how perfectly suited you may be for it, at least 10-20% of it you'll probably hate. As much fun as it looked like John Popper was having, I'm quite sure that he wasn't looking forward to all the travel required of him. He maybe even wasn't looking forward to doing the exact same performance, demanding the same energy level from fans, a mere one night later at a different venue. Even though this may be his perfect job, he can't be "live" (and therefore passionate and joy-filled) in all of it. And neither can I.

Secondly, I'm not even sure how instrumental my occupation is for this "live musician" dream/goal. A very good friend of mine stayed at our house for four days a week or two ago. We met ten years ago, and because he now lives in Germany, we don't see each other as often as we'd like. Out for supper with him and my wife on his last evening here, the question was presented to each of us how we had changed in the ten years since we met. After thinking about it, I mentioned that I think I'm a lot less career-oriented now. I'm less worried about climbing a figurative ladder and making a name for myself in some profession. All those things are nice, but I'm not as desperate as I once was for that type of recognition. Of a bigger priority is what my occupation allows me to do. I can't imagine what kind of job opportunity it would take to lure me away from a house I love in a location I love because of its proximity to many of the people I love. I'm in no hurry to "move-up" professionally. Life is too good in too many other ways. When I think about it, I get to be a live musician in many areas of my life. The dream isn't exclusive to work.

I saw this goal put into different words while reading a book about C.S. Lewis, an author who I would say writes like a metaphorical "live musician." In it, Pope John Paul II gave Lewis this praise: he said Lewis "knew what his 'apostolate,' his divine calling was. . ." This, in and of itself, is true of so few people in the world. But the Pope added one more thing: "And he did it." Another person, listening to Lewis deliver the BBC radio broadcasts during WWII that would lay the foundation for his classic Mere Christianity, said this: "Here was a man who was 'laid hold of by Christ and who enjoyed it.'"

This is what being a live musician is all about. This is the high praise of a life lived well - to know what you're being called to by the God of the Universe, and passionately and successfully doing it with joy. Not just in a job, but in an entire life, well-lived.