DON'T JUDGE TOO SOON

It was a busy day in the studio.  We were pre-recording choral vocal tracks for a Christmas Special.  Ralph Carmichael, who had been an arranger for Nat King Cole and tons of other Hollywood artists, was conducting the session.   Ralph was a legend in Hollywood jazz circles.  He liked to tell the story of trying to get musicians to play on a big studio session 'back when'.  The real pros didn't want to do it since it was considered a 'rock' session and in those days, rock was considered a second-class citizen by lots of  'serious' musicians.  The 'rock' score being recorded?  "Born Free"!   Shows you how times have changed.  

Anyway, I turned to Ralph and shared something I'd been going through.  I had made a decision about something that at the time seemed right  - even the more spiritual choice.   Yet, something came along that totally contradicted what I had done, left me floundering for what to do next.  And this wasn't the first time.   Ralph, considerably my senior in both age and wisdom, looked at me, smiled and told me a 'modern parable'.   Imagine your life as a giant canvas.  You are the painter.  Sometimes you feel in your heart that God is telling you to dip your brush into the paint and brush your canvas with bright yellow paint.   You stand back.  It looks beautiful, like the morning sun.  Then, before you know it, something or someone comes along and blue paint is thrown all over  your yellow, completely obliterating what you had done.  You feel betrayed, misled, confused.   God is silent.  But after awhile you gaze at the canvas and realize that God was not after yellow in your life, nor was he after blue.   He wanted to produce a brilliant emerald green!   It required your obedience to put down yellow,  something or someone else to add blue, in order to realize God's intended  result on the canvas of your life.  The moral of the parable?  "Don't judge the painting before it's finished!"    Ralph encouraged me through that little parable to never see the circumstances at any point of my life as the end, but rather as the next step in the journey of life, a step that will lead to other steps, that in the end, will produce what God has intended all along!   I'm often reminded of that story when I'm tempted to be discouraged because something doesn't go as I think it should, or I face a difficulty, or MY agenda gets changed and I don't know what's happening.   Pass the paint brush!  Thank you, Ralph!