For three days in a row I have seen a man near my house fiddling around on his roof. He was playing a violin and it was beautiful music. I stopped and listened as if I was hearing my most favorite song for the third time. I don’t know what it entranced me more; the music or the man. The music lifted me to lofty places but then I wondered how such sweet repose could come from the hand of a man. He played beautifully and his sound came from great strength. And to top it off, he was standing on his roof. Most people would think him a nut but I did not. I admired him and gave him thanks within myself for his strength to stand on a stoop to give me a memory that I will always remember. He was standing on a roof, playing a violin in broad daylight and he did not care. I looked at him but he did not see me, for within himself he was in place higher than a roof. I could tell the man was standing on a peak loftier than a house. I think his head was in the clouds, his feet about the heavens. The sound from his instrument came from the song in his heart. I noted his confidence. When I think about my neighbor’s roof top performances, I remember more Julie Andrews skipping with her guitar than I am reminded of the Beatles’ final roof top gig. She sang “With each step I am more certain, Everything will turn out fine. I have confidence the world can all be mine! They’ll have to agree I have confidence in me.” The Sound of Music is in my top 3 favorite movies of all time. Pater and John also had confidence (Acts 4). Filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke boldly about the resurrection of Jesus. It got them in trouble, but they did not care. They told the ones in authority, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” We cannot stop speaking. Their mouthes could not be closed. This is the kind of confidence I want in life. I want the confidence Peter and Paul had in the streets of Jerusalem. I want the confidence Mary had to climb every mountain and to forge every stream. I want the confidence my neighbor has drawing the bow atop his house and just letting loose. I want the confidence 113 year old Rose Girone had to wake up every morning with a purpose (I don’t think the Beatles had much confidence that day on the rooftop, in fact, I think they were on their way down and never got back to get back). I want the confidence to do a great thing everyday. Like Maria the nun, I have confidence in me because I get my confidence from a source higher than me. Jesus the Nazarene that lived 3bc-30ad had the most confidence of any man to ever live. He was resolute on His plan. He was unshakeable. He was not going to be deterred from His path. Jesus of Nazareth had great confidence and boldness. I think the greatest show of His confidence was not the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead but how He Himself died on the cross. While He suffered He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, and while He was reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to the One righteously judges (1 Peter 2:22). Jesus had all confidence in His Father that He was going to accomplish what He had promised Him. The Son had full, perfect trust in the Father. His eyes were on Him the whole time. Duly noted. O that my eyes always be fixed upon the author and perfecter of faith. His name is Jesus who endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. May my gaze be on Him.

I have set the Lord continually before me;

Because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken. Psalm 16:8