\u201cHow many of you think that you are God\u2019s favorite?\u201d What I thought was an easy, playful opening to my sermon was more revealing than I could\u2019ve imagined. I used the example of how parents and grandparents tell their children that they are their \u201cfavorite\u201d as a playful way to express delight in their special status as beloved. Only a few hands were raised. Noticing that I stumbled into deeper waters than I anticipated at this point in my sermon, I asked, \u201cHow many of you struggle to know that God loves you so much that you could be regarded as a favorite?\u201d Many, many hands were raised. My opening ice-breaker became a heart-breaking reminder of the background music playing in the lives of many people – am I really loved? It made me wonder, how do we know we are loved? To know we are loved we have to become attuned to the divine music in our lives. How do we become attuned to this music?<\/p>\n
Music and Leadership\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n This was one of the many thoughts that came to mind as tuned in to the leadership opus by Jules Glazer, The Sound of Leadership: Kingdom Notes to Fine Tune Your Life and Influence<\/i>. This is a leadership primer and guide that is accessible and applicable springing forth from a practitioner that is seasoned in leading and reflection. Glazer beautifully reveals the harmony of music, leadership and theology into a masterful work that calls readers to realign with the divine frequency all around us. Glazer even begins his work with a comparison to the basics of musical theory to the fundamentals of leadership: listen, see, learn, do and love.[1] He applies these principles to the music and leadership characteristics in the various dynamics such as the voices of leadership, the identity of the leader, and the effects of leadership. I found that I resonated with much of this work, even though I am not particularly versed in music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Criticism and Gratitude<\/b><\/p>\n As I read the book, the question of \u201chow do we know we are loved\u201d came to mind in the section on gratitude and generosity. He writes, \u201cIn my observation, most Americans choose not to be grateful\u2026it is hard to be thankful\u2026When we are critical, judgmental, and negative about situations around us, it is hard to be thankful.\u201d[2] It made me consider that the tendency to criticize is often being out of tune to the music around you. It is an orchestra player that over plays to make their contribution heard instead of adding to whole. Gratitude may even be expressed in choosing not to be critical in situations when you have discovered something to critique but its not necessary or helpful. Glazer goes on to say, \u201cPracticing gratitude is not a sign of weakness but strength when integrity, humility, and courage are the character qualities demonstrated by the gracious person.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n Gratitude and Love<\/b><\/p>\n Gratitude is the action that uncovers the music of love. We can hear the sounds of love when we express gratitude. Love and gratitude are vulnerability, whereas criticizing is protection and being closed off. Gratitude is recognizing that you have received a gift that someone else wanted to give as an expression of love. Perhaps the leper heard the music of love when he came back to Jesus in gratitude for the healing, while the other nine that were healed missed the true blessing.[4] Gratitude brings us in tune with the soundtrack of love playing all around us. When we are grateful, we are putting love into action and that action makes love real for us. That\u2019s what I wonder for a congregation and anyone that struggles to know if they are loved. Gratitude just might be the very thing that reveals the truth all around you – you are God\u2019s favorite because there is no one like you.[5]<\/p>\n \u200c1. Jules Glanzer, The Sound of Leadership: Kingdom Notes to Fine Tune Your Life and Influence<\/i> (Plano, Texas: Invite Press, 2023), p. 2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. Ibid., 60.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Ibid., 63.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Luke 17:11-19.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 5. Glazer, 46.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHow many of you think that you are God\u2019s favorite?\u201d What I thought was an easy, playful opening to my sermon was more revealing than I could\u2019ve imagined. I used the example of how parents and grandparents tell their children that they are their \u201cfavorite\u201d as a playful way to express delight in their special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2347,2897],"class_list":["post-33896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-glazer","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33941,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33896\/revisions\/33941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}