Play the Rests

I discovered my life motto this week:

The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days waiting for better ones ahead.

Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Enjoy life. I love that. I so often find myself thinking, "I can't wait until [insert future phase of life], it's going to be so much better than [insert present phase of life]." What a waste. Why wish my days away when they are so wonderful already? 

I guess sometimes I feel like I'm not doing anything. I'm simply wandering around, doing what I'm told and not making anything of my life. I look ahead and see that there's so much to be accomplished -- college, marriage, motherhood -- and it looks wonderful. And it is. But there is wonder in my life now as well. Jon Ruskin said, 

"Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time and not be discouraged at the rests. If we say sadly to ourselves, 'There is no music in a rest,' let us not forget 'there is the making of music in it.'"

Music is beginning to take over my life. I feel like the minute I finish one big thing, another one rolls around. And I love it. I have had many a wonderful experience as I have performed with my choir. But you know what's funny about it? Some of the most powerful moments have come in the silence. In those moments that remain untouched. In those moments, the music becomes personal. The music connects. In those moments, the audience can take the music and make it their own. The music isn't weakened by the rests, it is defined by them.

The Lord has a plan for each of us. He has composed a piece for each person -- a piece more beautiful and intricate than any other could create. Through Christ, we are given the ability to sight read this piece perfectly. And, while we are given the ability to play this piece, we are also given the ability to choose what we will play. 

God has purposefully placed rests in our music. They come in the absolutely perfect moments, the moments that will be most powerful. I so often want to play over those rests. I want to push past them and get to where the "actual music" lies. But the true music lies, not in the soaring melodies and complex rhythms, but in the rests. It lies in the lingering vibrations, in the moments of stillness. It certainly requires patience, but in playing the rests, in allowing those moments to wash over you, your piece will rise from something beautiful to something moving. As you have the patience to play those rests, you will perform the piece as the Lord composed it to be.

To watch the full Continue in Patience video, go here. To read the full talk, go here.