Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Romans 12:14-16 (NIV)
I love music. One of my past hobbies that actually became a job for me, was to listen to music and then write the music score for a band and for the vocalists.
In music, it is critical to identify the melody. The melody is what the rest of the music supports. Now, one instrument won’t always carry the melody. In a lot of scores, the melody will sometimes be with a stringed instrument and then a wind instrument and a lot of times a brass instrument will end up carrying it.
One rule in music is you don’t always have the whole band or choir singing the melody. At some point the other vocalists and musicians will have to identify they aren’t the melody and then back away and find their role supporting the melody with their harmony part. When this happens the music takes on a dynamic that can move you.
The harmony part in a song is never the soloist. The harmony part never sticks out in the mix. It is always tucked just behind the melody. If the harmony part was in front, then by function it would be the melody and not the harmony. The harmony part supports and gives preference to the melody.
When done correctly, the music takes a depth and a pleasing tone that can sometimes take your breath away.
That’s the power of the harmony.
The life of following Jesus is not a melody life. While culture is out competing for the melody, Jesus is calling us to play and sing the harmony.
The Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of “harmony” when describing how a Follower of Jesus should live.
When someone causes us pain or discomfort because of what we believe, a Follower of Jesus responds by blessing those who persecute us. This shows we are there for them and not us. This is opposite of how most of culture would act.
When we follow Jesus, we take the harmony by operating in the compassion of Jesus. When people mourn, we mourn with them. We support them.
When they are happy we get jealous. Just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. When others are happy, we rejoice with them, being their “harmony.” Not the rejoice type when you feel you have to because everyone else is rejoicing and you don’t want to look like the loner in the corner sulking cause it didn’t happen to you. We respond with joy because we are called to be the harmony.
To be the harmony means not to be proud and think we have to be the melody.
To be the harmony means we aren’t conceited thinking we deserve the melody and limelight.
To be the harmony means to allow those who might be considered less than us to take the melody and we bring harmony to their melody.
My next step:
To live life as the harmony to other people’s melody.