Several years ago, I was working on a musical score for a Japanese anime film written by a composer and Christian friend. We were sorting through the complex, contrapuntal music that he had written and I was struggling to strike the right balance in the mix, when he gave me some sage advice. He instructed me to decide what I thought the listener needed to hear the most, then feature that element while gently tucking the rest of the musical elements in the background. He reminded me that our ears can hear all of the sounds, but if the mix is cluttered, our brains will struggle to identify the melody or the main musical element in the mix. To give a recent example, it was like trying to hear Adele's vocal in Sunday night's Oscar show. The orchestra was equally as loud as the singer's voice making it difficult to distinguish the melody as she sang. The orchestral underscore was beautiful, rich and full, but the improper balance between the two left us all wondering, was that intentional?
Isn't this true in the mix of our lives? There are many elements competing for our limited brain bandwidth, but there is only one true melody which is Christ himself. We all have our finger on the knob and we can turn Him up or down each day. Our goal as followers of Christ is to find balance, harmonizing our activities in tune with His perfect melody, and allow Him to be heard as the focus of our day.
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