Music & the Spoken Word: ‘Reason not the necessity’

Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Lloyd Newell each Sunday in the course of the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This shall be given Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.

Beauty feeds our souls. We need food, water, and shelter to survive, but we want beauty to thrive. So along with planting vegetable gardens, we plant flowers. We construct shelters, but we also paint murals, lay decorative tile, strum guitars and construct fountains like those we see here in beautiful abundance in Mexico. We crave the creativity that enhances our existence, although some might consider it “nonessential.”

In one in every of his famous speeches, Shakespeare’s King Lear tries to assist his unfeeling and selfish daughters, Goneril and Regan, understand the essential nature of the nonessentials. When his daughters argue that he not needs all of the flourishes of his former life, Lear implores them, “O, reason not the necessity!” Reduced to only what we want, he says, our life becomes as “low-cost as [a] beast’s” (see William Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” act 1, scene 4, line 304.) There is more to humanity — more to living — than simply sustaining life.

We were created not simply to live but to have joy. When we create and appreciate beauty, we’re following the pattern of our Creator. He made the sun because we want sunlight, and He also made sunrises and sunsets colourful because we want beauty. As His children, we do the identical after we create artworks like these colourful tiles — not a lot because they’re functional but because they’re beautiful. Similarly, we could state a truth, or we could share it through poetry and music, and suddenly the reality becomes a treasure. Beauty improves life.

Just days before His burial, the Lord was approached by a girl with “an alabaster box of ointment … very precious” (see Mark 14:3). In a sacred and loving act of worship, she applied the fragrant oil on the Savior’s head. Some responded critically: the oil was so expensive, the gesture so unnecessary. But the Savior answered, “She hath wrought a superb work on me” (see Mark 14:6). The cost of the oil would soon be forgotten, but the lady’s beautiful gesture would all the time be remembered.

Whenever we lovingly create, at any time when we fastidiously beautify, at any time when we lift others with our creative acts of loveliness, we glorify God. We bring ourselves and others just a little closer to the divine. So next time you’re inclined to make something beautiful, “reason not the necessity.” Make the world just a little higher by making it just just a little more beautiful.

Tuning in …

The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is obtainable on KSL-TV, KSL NewsRadio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM Radio (Ch. 143), the tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live to tell the tale Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on lots of these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.