Progressive exercises

A strong memory was engraved in my childhood of my mother practicing her violin, not just pieces of beautiful music, but the scales and exercises she played over and over.  It seemed to me ludicrous at the time to pay so much attention to the scales when she could have been spending that time working on "real music."

But even the sonatas and concertos and other profoundly difficult works that she played and knew and had memorized decades before, she would practice both the hard passages and the easy, over and over and over again, until she mastered it.  And then, practiced it some more.  Because when she reached a difficult portion of a piece in a performance, she didn't just know how to play it;  she welcomed it, not as a foe or adversary, or even an awkward acquaintance, but as a passage she knew intimately, every cadence, every wrinkle.  She knew how to respond to it.

She did not just play the notes on the page, or play without mistakes, but she brought another awareness to the music.  Anyone can play notes.  A master touches hearts through it.

Indeed as a child, I watched her play her violin, but I also watched how she interacted with people.  She didn't just show love to people, she loved them.  Even those who were strangers, even those who didn't like her, even those who were hard to love.  Not just those on her path, but those she sought out.  And even in hurtful situations, you would never know it.  She practiced grace on a daily basis.

In an old book of progressive exercises for piano that used to be my grandmother's, the directions are simple:  "Do one exercise a week playing it five times daily.  While each new exercise is being mastered, keep reviewing the old ones once each day.  Do this until the entire book has been learned."

One exercise trains and builds up strength and agility for the next.  Master one response, move onto the next harder one, but never forget what came before.

Pray continually.
Live faithfully.
Love well.
Practice grace
        over and over again.

Grace is hard, or it would not be grace.  Practice "five times daily," not just mastering words or notes, but realizing the beauty that God manifests in it.  Grace is a progressive exercise in how to actually love other people, not just "love on them."  We may not get grace right at first, we will stumble, we will go pretty slow, but we can work on it.  In what first appears as a jumble of notes --what do I do with this?-- a thread emerges through it.  We can begin to grasp the patterns of what comes next.  We can know how to respond.  And eventually -- like my mom with her music and how she interacted with people -- the grace is engraved, not just in our minds but in our hearts.
     
And in those impossible situations --which we all are surrounded by-- we realize this is not just a difficulty, but an opportunity to practice grace in this.

Love one another
    with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another
    in showing honor.

              Romans 13. 10