I found this story about Ben Zander in Masterful Coaching, by Robert Hargrove, p. 29-30.
Ben Zander was the conductor for the Boston Philharmonic. He was a relentless coach that pulled the best from his students. He once interrupted a Cello player named Carl who was playing Bach in front of the class.
Zander said, "Carl, I am now going to make a comment to you.... You could get a job with a symphony orchestra making $50,000 a year, and have a nice little wife and a nice little house, and 2.7 kids. The only thing is that Bach didn't write this music for someone who wanted to make $50,000 a year and have a nice little wife, and a nice little house, and 2.7 kids. He wrote it for the glory of God. Play with more passion, Carl!"
I've known a few too many leaders who were called by God to a marvelous task but reduced it to a means to temporal survival. Actually, I think most of us sometimes forget the grand and glorious things that we've been called to and start to see them as a way to gain security for ourselves.
May God help us to remember that when we "play" with passion the score that God has written for us to perform, bringing glory to God and fulfilling his most profound desires, that all of the "other things" (Matthew 6:33) will be added to our lives as well.
Its time to play with passion for the sake of God and His Kingdom. Its time to play with passion or risk falling into the mundane, day in and day out, existance that we loathed when we started our journeys.
If your object of leadership is to simply grasp security and safety then forget about it...please... it's time to let someone else play the instrument. If the object of your leadership is to fulfill a passion that God placed in your heart then passionately pursue it.
God didn't write the score of your life and your calling just so it would be nice and tidy. It was given as a gift to you and to those you are called to lead...for the sake of His glory.
Play passionately!
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