During rehearsal at church this past week a story was shared about a famous conductor who slammed the door in the face of a composer because he was 5 minutes late for their appointment. The conductor chastised the man telling him to never disrespect him again by showing up late for an appointment. I believe the point of the story was that when we ignore or delay acting on the commands of God, we "disrespect" God and even show contempt for his grace and mercy. The ironic thing about the story is that it was told by a church leader who is part of a leadership team that had just "disrespected" 6 musicians by having them sit around for nearly an hour waiting for the rehearsal to start. In my life, I am often on the receiving end of disrespect in regards to waiting for other people. I was once "disrespected" by a church leader who started a rehearsal "on time", without me, even though I was 2 minutes from being ready to begin. In their attempt to non-verbally chastise me for being 2 minutes late, what they really did was damage the unity of the body that made up the band, because I was not part of the first number we rehearsed, and if you take the Bible seriously, you have to agree that when one part is missing, the whole suffers.
In reality, this whole "disrespect" thing is much bigger than a clock. It goes right to the heart of each person. As musicians we are first and foremost servants...servants of the song, servants of the other musicians, servants of the congregation, servants of God...and as Rick Warren said somewhere in his "Purpose Driven Life" book, we show our true colors as servants by how we react when someone really treats us like a servant (disrespect). I don't like to be disrespected, and I especially don't like it when it comes from an fellow servant, but the truth is, it comes with the territory. My goal is to develop a softer heart and a thicker skin (another Rick Warren'ism), trying not to disrespect folks, and trying not to be too surprised (or hurt) when I'm disrespected.
It's not about the clock...it's about the heart.
