The Letters Bach Left on Every Page

For nearly three decades, Johann Sebastian Bach served as the music director at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. He composed cantatas for Sunday services, trained choir boys, and produced some of the most extraordinary music the world has ever known. But what strikes me most about Bach isn't his genius — it's what he scribbled at the bottom of his manuscripts.

On page after page, whether it was a towering Mass or a simple teaching exercise for his students, Bach wrote three letters: S.D.G. Soli Deo Gloria. "To God alone be the glory."

He didn't write those letters on his masterpieces alone. He wrote them on the ordinary work too — the Wednesday rehearsal pieces, the student exercises, the compositions no audience would ever applaud. Bach made no distinction between sacred and secular in his craft. He once wrote, "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul."

That's what purpose looks like when it takes root in a human life. It doesn't only show up on the stage. It marks the Monday morning email and the Tuesday carpool and the conversation nobody else overhears.

The Almighty doesn't just give us purpose for our shining moments. He gives us purpose for every page. The question isn't whether your life has a grand audience. The question is what letters you're writing at the bottom of each ordinary day.