I promised an encouraging story from my friend Mike Oldham, on the Executive Leadership Team of the American Baptists, Rocky Mountain Region. Mike got the story from black pastor Otis Moss III whom Mike heard at a conference.

The story is about a concert in Köln (Cologne), Germany, 1975. Here’s the startling opening of the Wikipedia version, worth the read in its entirety:

The Köln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, West Germany on 24 January 1975 and released on ECM Records later that year.  It is the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album.

“The best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album.” Wow. You can hear part of the concert here. But it’s the backstory that captured Otis Moss’s attention:

At Jarrett’s request, Brandes [the concert promoter] had selected a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano for the performance.

[Bob’s note: the Bösendorfer Imperial is nearly 10 feet long. Most concert grands are 9 feet. The Bösendorfer has nearly an extra octave of low range: 97 keys (not 88), 8 full octaves.]

However, there was some confusion by the opera house staff and instead they found another Bösendorfer piano backstage—a much smaller baby grand piano—and, assuming it was the one requested, placed it on the stage. The error was discovered too late for the correct Bösendorfer to be delivered to the venue in time for the evening’s concert. The piano they had was intended for rehearsals only and was in poor condition and required several hours of tuning and adjustment to make it playable. The instrument was tinny and thin in the upper registers and weak in the bass register, and the pedals did not work properly.

Jarrett initially refused to play, but the house was sold out (for an 11:00 p.m. concert!), and recording equipment was in place. Jarrett had driven over from Switzerland, tired, and with a sore back. He attempted to get dinner at a nearby restaurant without success.

So he played the concert tired, hungry, in pain, and on a broken piano. (Let that sink in.)

Otis Moss’s conclusion was simple:

Our God is a jazz pianist.

God can take broken, flawed, tired people and do great things.

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12.9, 10, ESV)