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I Will Be With You

Some of you all know my life story. You know that I was a professional classical musician, and that I performed every week as a symphony musician with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for five years in Hong Kong and with the opera company in Barcelona, Spain for nine years. So, if you take those fourteen years – full-time, professionally – and add the six years before that pursuing a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in classical music performance – also, year-round performing every week multiple times in concerts, solo recitals, quartet and chamber music concerts, weddings, etc. – I probably averaged three concerts a week for twenty years. That’s over 3000 concerts, easily. And there are at least 2 or 3 rehearsals for each concert, so that’s around 10,000 times to play music in a group – usually with at least 75 musicians, most times with 100 to 200 musicians, choir members, and soloists. Conservatively, I would say that I played 10,000 times in an orchestra in public, either in a rehearsal or a concert. That was my life. That was my career. That’s what I did for 20 years. I played every Beethoven symphony, Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, John Williams – if it was classical music, I probably performed it, and often, dozens of times for each piece.

And the question that I often hear – when people hear about my past life – is “Do you miss it?” “Do you miss the concerts, the crowds, the music?”

I don’t miss it. I don’t miss the concerts. I don’t miss the crowds. I don’t miss the rehearsals. I don’t miss the boring parts of rehearsing, hours and hours with singers or the choir or rehearsing extra because someone can’t quite get the right notes on their solo.

I don’t miss that at all! I don’t miss those hours and hours.

But sometimes I do miss the magical moments in music – maybe once in a week of performances, maybe at the very end of a great piece of music when the entire group of 110 musicians, the 100-voice choir, the six soloist singers, and the conductor all come together as a perfectly-tuned, unanimous group, and we’re playing and singing as loudly and as together as we can, and the music takes off as if by magic!.

That was always exhilarating! There’s nothing like it! The audience feels it. The players and singers feel it. Everybody in the entire concert hall knows and feels it and hears it. It is amazing! It takes your breath away. Wow! That’s why we all go to concerts. That’s the reason we listen to music or attend a performance – for those magical moments.

But those magical moments don’t happen at home. Those magical moments don’t happen when we’re alone. It is a shared experience. It is a collective experience. It does not happen in an empty concert hall. It does not happen with one, individual, musician. It only happens in a group. Magical moments in music (and in sports and in world history) only happen together.

When I mentioned earlier those wonderful, magical moments in music, I didn’t tell you the whole story. I didn’t mention that behind those 10,000 times playing in a concert or rehearsal, there were three times as many hours of practicing music at home alone. I hated that part. That was painful torture. That was self-discipline. That was hard, hard, hard work. That was blood, sweat, and tears. That was the nitty-gritty. And it was always done alone.

That was the secret behind the "magic.” It takes hard, individual work, behind-the-scenes, long before there could be “magical” moments and public applause.

The Bible passage that I’d like to share today is from Joshua, chapter 1. It focuses on an individual, who then leads and conquers a vast territory by God’s command and power.

Joshua 1:1-9: "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide:  “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them — to the Israelites.  I will give you (all) every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.  Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates — all the Hittite country — to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.  No one will be able to stand against you (sing) all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua stood before God and God told him the new situation: “You’re the leader now. Moses is dead and gone. YOU will lead THEM (“…you and all these people…”): you, an individual, will lead them, a huge population. Verse 3 God says “I will give you (all) every place where you (all) set your foot, as I promised Moses.” Verse 4 “Your territory” – the possessive pronoun is PLURAL – will be from the Euphrates River to the Med, from Egypt to Lebanon.

But, in verse 5, there is a significant change in whom God is promising things. From verse 5 through the end of the passage, verse 9, God is speaking and encouraging Joshua alone. The word “you” in verses 5-9 is always singular (and look at these great promises for Joshua!): "No one will be able to stand against you [singular] all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

There is some secret, private, hard, individual work, behind-the-scenes, long before there will be big conquering battles and public victories. But, God promised to be there with Joshua. God would direct Joshua. When? When Joshua sought the Lord God through His Word. Joshua was not to let it depart from his mouth. He was to meditate on God’s Word. He was to keep God’s Word faithfully – not turning to the left or the right.

But, we don’t like to work alone. We don’t like isolation.

Earlier, I told about the 10,000 times to play in an orchestra – times I usually enjoyed. Then I told you of the 30,000 difficult, disciplined times when I was all alone – times that weren’t fun. Those times were worth it because of what happened when we were finally all together!

We don’t like to work alone. We don’t like isolation.

You might be thinking – “NBC wants us to work remotely, at home alone.”

You might already work remotely – many of us are.

You might talk to a student or even an adjunct who says “I don’t like online courses; I want to be in a room full of people!!!”

Students tell me, “I don’t like studying at home alone. I don’t see anyone and nobody sees me!”

Working from home sometimes feels like “nobody knows what I’m doing. I work, but nobody ever sees me working.” “That is, until I make a mistake. Then I hear about it!”

Listen to all of us: staff working remotely, students alone studying at NBC, professors, adjuncts, IT, business office folks, spending hours and hours in front of a computer alone.

Listen to all of us: pastors, ministers, counselors, teachers, church musicians preparing sermons, lessons plans, worship programs, and spending hours and hours in front of a computer alone.

But God says,

1. “You are NOT alone” (God is with you)
2. You are part of a great TEAM (an army which God is blessing everywhere we step)
3. This life is just a time of practicing and working at home, getting ready for when we will all be together (in Heaven). Revelation, in chapters 5 and 7, talks about being with thousands of angels (10,000 x 10,000 = 100,000,000) and a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the Throne in white robes. (we need to hold on to the Word, not turning to the right or left)

– Dr. Tim McKeithen serves as Director of Hispanic Ministries department at NBC.