Don't "Be Yourself." Develop Yourself.

          When I was studying music composition at the conservatory, the staff spent four years trying to teach us, ironically, to truly be original. We were exposed to and taught to write in all forms of music, including the forms we didn’t like (namely, the abstract twentieth century music that didn’t appeal to those with more tonal tastes) in order to best diversify our musical diet and add tools to our proverbial toolbox, when it came to writing music. 

          Some may think that one would only need to look inside their creative self to be original, but that assumes that their creative self has been exposed to a variety of relevant (sample) material and possess the right proverbial tools. Having a balanced musical diet was necessary. Otherwise, as a composer, you’d only become a lower form of your favorite composer or recording artist, hypocritically, not being very original. 

          This, actually, became an issue of accountability among myself and my fellow music composition majors. They could tell, for example, when I’d been listening to too much John Williams (film music is an easy addiction for some music students) when I brought my composition assignments to class. A balanced musical diet, at the very least, will teach students to write music where the musical borrowings from other composers are so diverse and minute that even a musical connoisseur can’t find them. 

          Upon graduation, myself and a few other composition majors had humbly submitted ourselves to the curriculum, expanded (sometimes uncomfortably) our musical diet, and, therefore, added to our musical toolbox, becoming better musical composers. But if a student resisted and kept his/her imbalanced diet, they’d write music after graduation pretty much the same way they did before they enrolled in the conservatory.

          I bring up this story because this idea of balance and diversity in one’s education is also true for theology. I am a textbook moderate. I am very slow to say that I “like” any particular theologian, pastor, speaker, author, etc. But when I do, I quickly follow with some things I “don’t like” about the same individual. The reverse is also true. 

          I avoid most theological labels, and I can only have a mixed relationship with church movements. Some movements are just unfounded fads, while others are biblically rightful developments in the Church’s maturity and methodology. Those who hop modern movements can become like the tentative and infantile individuals Paul warns against (Eph. 4:14), but those who prejudicially avoid all church movements will tend toward dangerous and arrogant complacency in church practice. (Now, I’m not avoiding labels for its own sake, or to “be myself.” It’s all about the Bible. Every theological stance and church movement should be weighed biblically.).

          So, my advice to students of the Bible: don’t “be yourself.” Develop yourself. Rid your education of all bias and preconceived notions and open up your mind, because the Word of God is very, very deep. If a diversely-balanced musical diet can make a great composer, imagine what a diversely-balanced yet orthodox study of the Bible and the Church can do for a servant of God.