The following is excerpted from The Divine Mentor, by Wayne Cordeiro. It is a powerful lesson for Bible readers.
A portrait of Ignace jan Paderewski, by painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1890
Concert pianists . . . no matter the status the artist might have, he will always do one certain activity every day.
One thing . . . scales.
Major scales, minor scales, the Aeolian scale, the Locrian. Why?
Ignace Jan Paderewski was a renowned Polish pianist who lived in the first half of the twentieth century. When his government requested that he play concerts in order to raise money, Paderewski, a patriot and willing citizen, replied: ‘I will be part of the war effort under one condition. You must allow me every day to continue playing scales, three hours a day. . . .’
They didn’t hesitate to accept his offer.
Why would someone of Paderewski’s enormous talent insist on playing scales for three hours daily? He had a ready answer.
‘If I skip one day of scales,’ he explained, ‘when I play in concert, I notice it. If I skip two days of scales, my coach will notice. And if I skip three days of scales, the world will notice.’
Bible reading and meditation on the word of God is similar for the Christian life. Skip a day, and you will be weaker spiritually, skip another day and those with spiritual discernment, might begin to notice the effects on your spirit and demeanor. Skip three days and everyone begins to feel the effects of your lack of spiritual preparation for the challenges of the day.
But the more we practice the art of biblical meditation on the word of God, the more we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18), the more and better we present Christ to the world and the more joy we experience in our lives.
Let’s not hesitate to “play our scales”. Let’s make sure daily, just like breakfast, we feast on the word of God that we might draw near to the Word made flesh.
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