My oldest son is learning to play the drums, and at first I had mixed feelings. I’m sure every parent who has a child learning a new instrument can relate. I’m glad he’s learning something new, and we’re thankful for the generous friend who loaned us the beautiful, full-size drum set. To be honest, I think it’s cool he wants to play the drums, and I’ve wanted him to learn for a while now, but some days….

Last week, I was enjoying the quiet, peaceful house when, boom, boom, crash, he started to play. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have heard the song he was playing along with, but all I heard were the booms and crashes. Pretty soon, he was playing a continuous crash of cymbals. “Why is he keeping the beat on the cymbals?” I wondered. I was pretty sure he was playing it wrong. Later, I told him, “wow, there were a lot of cymbals in that song.” “Oh yeah”, he said, “that’s how they play it, they ride the crash through the whole chorus.” So it sounded like a lot of noise to me, but it even had a name.

That phrase stuck with me for days. It reminded me of I Corinthians 13:1 (hcsb)