A Note From Tom: October 20th, 2011
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day! Like King David says, our God is so great that He has good things already stored up for your day! (Psalm 31!) Who knows what unexpectedly good things are comin’?!
Kind of like “flash goodness”.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of those “flash concerts” that are sweeping the nation. They’re like those “flash mobs” when people “spontaneously” and surprisingly do Broadway songs and dance numbers together for shocked and unsuspecting crowds on the streets and malls of our nation’s cities. I saw one film of a hundred people “bringin’ it” with the “Halleluyah Chorus” in a mall food court last Christmas. Wow! In flash concerts, a bunch of folks…musician and singer types…get together and decide to practice some classical music thing and then bust it out on unexpecting shoppers and strollers.
Like…
Picture this scene that happened recently in a Philadelphia farmer’s market… “Farmers” and “shoppers”, who are really members of the Philadelphia Opera, mingling and chatting…Suddenly! An orchestral waltz beat! You think, “I believe I’ve heard that music before! But where?...”
All-of-th’sudden some dude started singing!
Loud!
In Italian!
Those who knew would have recognized the first lines of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata”. But mostly, everyone just looked around to see what was going on!
“Libiamo, libiamo ne'lieti calici
che la belleza infiora.
E la fuggevol ora s'inebrii
a voluttà!...
“What?!”
Then a woman’s bellowing…
“ Tra voi tra voi saprò dividere
il tempo mio giocondo;
Tutto è follia nel mondo
Ciò che non è piacer…”
“What on earth is happenin’ here?!” folks wonder.
Then the guy who was squeezing peaches right beside you eighteen seconds ago, belts out…
”Godiam, la tazza e il cantico
la notte abbella e il riso;
in questo paradisooooooo!!”
Pretty soon, people everywhere are screeching and soaring Italian words to a blazing orchestra!...
“La vita è nel tripudio!”
Then the guy, who a few minutes ago was bagging tomatoes sings, “Quando non s'ami ancora!”
Then the former okra shopper is singing the Violetta lines, “Nol dite a chi l'ignora”
Then it’s everybody in the clandestine opera! All together for the swelling finale!
“Godiaaaaaamo, la tazza e il canticooooooo
la notte abbella e il risooooo;
in questo paradisoooooooo ne sopra il nuoooooovoooooo diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiì!!!!”
And the farmer’s market goes wild!!
“Bravoooooo!”
They’re called “flash concerts”. Orchestras and operas are organizing them and ambushing the unexpecting with classical music in markets and malls everywhere! I’d love to see one someday!
It’d be cool to be in one!
Maybe you could be!
There’s a verse that says God has good works for you to do. Things He wants just you to do.
Only you could do them.
Nobody will do but you!
…Loving the hurting that come your way.
…Encouraging someone who is struggling to make it to the end of the day.
…Praying with someone who is so downhearted they can’t even do it for themselves.
…Giving something to someone who really needs a hand.
Lots of times, these moments are unexpected. At least, we didn’t expect them. But Ephesians, chapter two, verse ten says that God had already prepared that moment beforehand. It was already organized and arranged. From a long time ago! The things He has for you to do. The love He has for you to give.
It’s like “flash goodness”.
No one expected the goodness of God to bust out like that today!
Except for Him!
Check out that Scripture…
“For we are…created in Christ Jesus for goods works that He has prepared beforehand, that we should do them…”
Y’know, in the Italian version of this, the word for “works” is the Italian word “opera”. It’s where we get the words, “operator”, and “operation”. Eph.2.10 in that language goes, “….creati in Cristos Gesu’ per la buona opera”. In Italian, an “opera” means any artistic work, whether singing, painting, or composing piano stuff.
And an “opera” is any good thing you do for the love of God.
Maybe today, when folks least expect it (even tho’ it’s been organized and planned in Heaven for a long time), an opera of love with bust out!
And you’ll be an opera star!
To the gloooooooooory of Gooooooooooood!
And angels will clap and flap and shout, “Braaaaaavooooooo!”