A couple of years ago, I was asked to conduct a wedding. Now I’m no priest, but since the couple had already had a registered wedding, I was asked to give a blessing. So I did. I stood in front as the couple walked in, and waited as the organist played the Bridal march, and waited and waited for her to finish, even after the couple had done the walk, reached the altar, and were waiting for her to stop. But did she stop? No, she didn’t. She had to play the whole march, even if the music was to be played only for the duration of the march by bride and bridegroom.
She, the pianist tried to impose her playing throughout the service to the embarrassment of everybody present including me, the proxy priest! She couldn’t play second fiddle! Do you know which the hardest instrument is to play in an orchestra? Second fiddle!
All instruments have their own sections; the violins divided into two parts – “first” and “second” violins. First violins are often the stars of the show. They get the melody lines. They get to show off. They sit next to the audience.
Back behind, where they are hard to see, are the second violins. They play a supporting role. They play harmony to the first violins. Theirs is a service role. Their job is to round out the sound of the other instruments. They serve the orchestra. They do what is not glamorous so that the whole will be beautiful. Without the second violins, the orchestra would sound incomplete.
You know what the hardest role to play in life? Second fiddle! To play second fiddle is to play a supporting role. And it is sometimes a service role; doing what is not glamorous, usually behind the scenes, so that the whole can be more beautiful.
When dad passed away a few years ago, my brother and I wondered what to write on his tombstone, “The Lord Is My Shepherd!” I said and my brother readily agreed. I must confess I wasn’t sure how my dad felt about those words, except that they hung on an old cardboard placard in the living room of our house where I grew up. But those words were etched in my mind.
It meant we followed the Lord like sheep, without doing any thinking of our own: In other words we played second fiddle! It’s not easy, but when we learn to play second fiddle, what comes through is a life, a business, a job of delightful, heavenly harmony! Play second fiddle to God and be a winner..!
—Email: [email protected]
