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A Lesson From Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso was an Italian tenor who thrilled audiences in Europe and North and South America about 100 years ago. He was one of the first to embrace the new technology known as the phonograph (or gramophone). One of his recordings was the first sound recording to sell one million copies. Though his 290 commercially-produced sound recordings were made from 1902-1920, all of them are available even to this day.
During the days of the first World War, Caruso was asked if he would sing at a concert for the benefit of the soldiers. The chairman of the committee who invited him said, "Of course, Mr. Caruso, as this is a charity affair, we would not expect you to do your best. Your name will draw the crowd. I would suggest that you merely sing some song requiring little strength or skill."
Caruso is said to have drawn himself up to his full height of 5’9”, and with great passion declared, "Caruso never does less than his best."
What a great lesson we followers of Christ should learn from that! Sadly, though, we are far too often lackadaisical in our devotion and service for the One Who Died For Us.
A church I pastored several years ago was facing some major repairs to a very old building. The bottom floor had settled until it was actually below ground level by several inches, and consequently, the entire building was moldy and had a musty, dirty smell. In one of our many meetings about the problem, one of the deacons spoke up and said, “Why can’t we just do enough to get by?”
That apparently was the prevailing attitude. But it was worse than I thought: they eventually did nothing.
My point is that too often followers of Christ just do enough to “get by,” rather than giving it all we’ve got. We offer God the leftovers in our time, our talents, and our resources, and are surprised when the blessings we read about in Scripture are not poured out on us! The Kingdom of God is not built with leftovers.
Let us pray this pray with fervor: “Lord, forgive us for the times when we didn’t give you our best. Help us to be as passionate about the quality of our service as Enrico Caruso was about singing opera!”
--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com
