Plateau.

This is a little long. I know. But i started writing this as more of a journal entry in this thing i write in for my quiet times and stuff, but i thought, hmm, i'll share it. So here it is.

“What if. when he was done with this masterpiece, R. had announced that there was no more need for anyone to paint, because he had just painted the ultimate painting?...Keep exploring, keep arranging, and forming and bringing in new perspectives.”
Rob Bell used this as a comparison to followers of Christ. We always are continuing to seek after God. Finding new ways to worship. “...exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. The Christian faith tradition is filled with change and growth and transformation. Jesus took part in this process by calling people to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live.”

Now, the trouble I have with this, is that yes, as a whole, followers of Christ are seeking new ways, seeking to further their relationships... But, what bothers me is that I don’t see that on a more personal level. Why do we reduce ourselves to such a low point where we just simply hang out, and in a sense “plateau?” To plateau is to “reach a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress.” The noun form of the word is “a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress.” It sounds good. But the key word here is level. It is yes, a high point, but a level point. That means no increase. no decrease. In my guitar playing and other aspects of music, I’ve “plateaued.” There are a few reasons I’ve plateaued.

The first reason is that I no longer play music with anyone else. Not that I don’t want to, I just don’t. The opportunity hasn’t really presented itself much, and so I just don’t. When you don’t play with other musicians, you start to flounder. There is nobody to feed off of. Nobody to play off of. Sure you can mix a few tracks and play along with a recording, but what fun is that? The biggest factor in playing by yourself is that you have nobody to challenge you. When you are playing music by yourself, it is far easier to become content with being, average. But when playing with other people, they challenge you to strive to be better. To try and “better” each other. And so when you only play music with yourself and a computer with a shoddy microphone, you start to become content with where you are, and don’t strive to get better.

The second reason is when you lose the discipline to practice(or in my case never get it at all). “Practice makes perfect.” We’ve all heard this. And I think it’s a bit of a farce. Nothing can ever be perfect. However, it can get better. Practicing improves your skill. Whether it be music, sports, or cooking. Practicing makes you better at what you do. I don’t practice. So therefore I do not get better. I fiddle around with different chords and learn a new song every once in a while, but I lack the discipline and self control to fully commit myself to learning, and practicing not just new things, but reinforcing the foundations. Just because you’ve learned something doesn’t mean that you have mastered it. Heck, I’ve been playing violin for over 13 years, but I still make little mistakes that you learn in the first week of learning the violin. Like... how to take care of an instrument. Don’t leave it lying on the ground. Don’t whip it around like a ragdoll. Don’t play swords with the violin bow. Unless you commit to having self control and have the discipline to practice, and to really get grounded in the foundations, you can’t really get too far.

And finally, the biggest reason I have plateaued in m music life, is because I no longer have the same vigor and passion for it as I once did. When I started playing music, I loved it. I practiced hours a day. I was so excited to learn new things. I practiced the basics because I knew that if I was to go to Juilliard School of Music, play in Carnegie Hall in New York with the likes of Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, and Yo Yo Ma, and be a violin virtuoso, I needed to practice. And I loved it. I loved everything about it. But as I grew older, my passion for it faded. I still liked music, even loved it, but not with the same intensity as I used to. Maybe I’ll go to Juilliard... or maybe I’ll pursue business. Or art. Or hotel management. Maybe I’ll play violin, or maybe I’ll play soccer. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but it isn’t where my passion lies. Well, used to lay. Without the passion and love for what you do, you will do, good things. Pretty cool things. But with the vigor, passion, and intensity that could be going into it, you could do great things. Spectacular things. Mind boggling things.

So why have we as followers of Christ “plateaued” in our relationship with our Creator and Savior? Because one, maybe we don’t surround ourselves with other believers that will help us grow. That we can “play off of.” That challenge us. Without other believers, yes, it is very possible to love God and grow, but with them, we strengthen our faith, as well as theirs through community.

Why have we as followers of Christ “plateaued?” Because we lack the self discipline and self control to really press into Him. To look to His Word for guidance. To work on the basics. We have problems really loving our friends, our family, our God. If we can’t love the one who created us, gave us life, gave us a hope, and loves us with an everlasting love... how will we then love our enemies as He calls us to? How are we to love God in the hard times? In the sad times? How are we to maintain a life that is glorifying to God when we can’t even do the one thing that we were truly created to do, and that is to love our God and worship Him.

Why have we as followers of Christ “plateaued?” Because that first love is not there like it used to be. Yes, we still love God. Yes, we still wanna serve Him. But not quite like we once did. As a child we would always want to put something in the offering plate as it when by, even if it was just a penny or two. We always wanted to go to church and hear stories about God’s awesome power and people getting swallowed whole by giant fish(or maybe we just wanted to play). We never doubted God. He was always there. Remember that song? My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing that my God cannot do... well what happened? We started to doubt a little. Maybe we just didn’t care. We knew he was there. We knew he loved us. But did we love him and adore him in the same way he did? No. Can we? No. But we can try. We can love him with all we have. But so often we don’t. We love him with 2 days a week. Church and youthgroup. We love him in 45 minutes a day at the morning times that we like to call “quiet times.” We now like God more than we love him.

But why do we do this to Him? Why do we not want to spend time, earnestly seeking His face? I don’t know. I wish I did.