Eat Your Metronome

A wise teacher once told me, “Eat your metronome.” This almost sounds like cannibalism because I like my metronome a lot. I’ve named him Jim, but I call him Mr. Metronome most of the time out of respect.

For the sake of my non-musician friends, a metronome is a device that goes tick-tick-tick. It never speeds up. It never slows down. It’s the law, and it forces me to keep a steady beat.

But there’s one problem with my metronome. It’s outside of me. When I turn it off, my fingers do whatever they want, and sometimes that’s not pretty.

I need the beat in my gut. It needs to possess me. Only then can my fingers and my audience enjoy the music between the beats.

In this way, my metronome reminds me of God. As long as He is outside of me, He is like the law, keeping me from doing what I want to do. But when He possesses me, when I have God in my gut, I have freedom to move between the beats, and the melodies of life are enchanting.