I'll play my best for Him

If you've read my blog for long, you know that I am pretty open and honest on here with my shortcomings and failures so that others and myself can grow from them.  That being said, the next line here may sound heretical to many and so I will ask your patience with me in dealing with my shortcomings.  I don't like Christmas music.  I would say it probably comes from the overplaying of the Christmas songs and that I can't seem to get away from them.  Having said that, there is a Christmas song that I absolutely love (along with a few others and most remade songs).  The song is "The Little Drummer Boy."  The reason I love this song is because it is precisely the response we should have at Christmas and indeed at all times.

The song starts out with the little drummer boy hearing about the birth of Jesus and is invited to bring a gift before Him.  Many around him are bringing fine and expensive gifts, but the young boy has nothing to bring.  All he has is his drum.  I like to think that this drum is probably worn down and beaten up a bit.  I also imagine that the drummer boy himself, while getting better, is still just a novice and is still getting used to playing the drum.  He probably misses the beat occasionally, but it is something that he loves to do.  It grieves the drummer boy that he can't offer anything to Jesus on the same magnitude of these great kings and wise men who are offering lavish gifts.  Then it occurs to him to play for Jesus.  He knows that he isn't the best drummer and that his drum isn't even the top of the line drum, but he knows that this is the greatest gift that he can offer and so he does it with all his heart.

I think that I relate to this well.  When I sit before God in my quiet time, I feel very much like the drummer boy.  It is as though I have nothing to offer God.  I sit there grasping at straws thinking about what I can offer the almighty God who created the world.  In this time, I can see the gifts of gold and beauty offered to God by others and I'm humbled by my own meager offerings.  It is here though that the line rings out, "I played my best for him."  I see my heart and how it yearns to give a greater gift before God.  I echo David's cry "Who am I ... that you have brought me thus far."  I stop comparing my gifts with others.  I take time to simply come and lay my offering before Jesus with my whole heart.  I begin to play my best for Him not thinking of anything else and giving my sole devotion to Him.

Many of us wish that we could offer something else to God.  We want to be better at evangelism or maybe better at speaking in front of people.  We beat ourselves up for not being able to give more.  We focus so often on the things that we aren't doing, that we forget to focus on the things that we are.  This is not to say that a desire for greater evangelism or deeper surrender is not good or that it shouldn't be pursued, but that in the things that we already do, that we will offer them in complete adoration of God.  That our hearts will be completely devoted to God and that we will mimic the drummer boy and play our best for Him.  This Christmas season and indeed after, I encourage all of us to realize that God knows us, He sees our heart and He smiles at our offering before Him.  He loves us, cherishes us, and relishes our offerings to Him when they are given out of love for Him.  May we simply play our best for Him.