broken, but not lost
This week I had a very severe, not-so-serious, heartbreaking, yet-not-life-altering event:
My guitar broke.
It wasn’t exactly my very first guitar, but it was the first one I loved. I got it as a 20th birthday gift from my parents. It’s all I had wanted for a while. She came in that October...a spruce-top Ibanez Talman in sunburst blue, small-body acoustic/electric.
I had already been dabbling in learning some chords and the basic fundamentals of guitar playing from scouring the Internet and from a $75 electric, but when the Ibanez came, it all came together. It was the first time I felt I had somewhat of a real gift I might could really use for the Lord one day.
I’ve never been the most responsible person, and in my early 20s that was clearly the case. I would take that guitar everywhere I went, but lazily would sometimes leave it in my car at night. The freezing temperatures of the Oklahoma cold took its toll. One day as I was playing it, I realized it had developed a hairline split on the neck. It never really bothered me. It wasn’t something I could notice as I played, and it didn’t hinder how it sounded or how it looked. Honestly, I forgot about it.
In the 15 years that I’ve had that guitar, other ones have came and left. But, I still always cherished the little blue guitar.
For the past few months it’s been in a bag case by my desk at school. As I was sitting at my desk in class, it fell. I don’t know if it was gravity, or me accidentally hitting it, but over she went. When I went to pick it back up and continue with my lesson, the neck was hanging out of the bag perpendicularly from the body of the guitar.
Even if you know nothing about guitars, seeing part of it sticking out at a 90-degree-angle is a tell-tale sign that something ain't right. And it wasn't.
I quietly leaned down and surveyed the damage. I grabbed the body in one hand, and the headstock in my right. I quickly realized what caused the sudden snap: the spot where the head had splintered off from the fall was in the exact same spot as the crack all those years ago.
Forgotten damage that had been done previously, had weakened a once-strong place on that guitar, and on a random Tuesday, did permanent damage.
Had I taken care of the issue long ago, I might have been saved from the pain of this week.
Infection is caused when a wound is left unattended and untreated. Left that way, it can cause irreparable damage or even death.
How often is that true in our lives? A past hurt, maybe even one once forgotten, comes barreling through on a random day when you least expect it. A normal day becomes unforgettable because of a forgotten wound left untreated.
However, all is not lost.
I can take my broken neck of that old blue guitar to a local guitar expert and (hopefully) get it repaired at a cost. It may not play the same, and it for sure won’t look the same, but music will come from it again.
Your heart is the same way. All is not lost for you, either.
You can take the brokenness of that old past hurt to THE Healer and (assuredly) get it repaired at NO cost. He already paid it in full. Unlike the patching and mending earthly doctors and gorilla glue, His mending is perfect and eternal.
My guitar broke.
It wasn’t exactly my very first guitar, but it was the first one I loved. I got it as a 20th birthday gift from my parents. It’s all I had wanted for a while. She came in that October...a spruce-top Ibanez Talman in sunburst blue, small-body acoustic/electric.
I had already been dabbling in learning some chords and the basic fundamentals of guitar playing from scouring the Internet and from a $75 electric, but when the Ibanez came, it all came together. It was the first time I felt I had somewhat of a real gift I might could really use for the Lord one day.
I’ve never been the most responsible person, and in my early 20s that was clearly the case. I would take that guitar everywhere I went, but lazily would sometimes leave it in my car at night. The freezing temperatures of the Oklahoma cold took its toll. One day as I was playing it, I realized it had developed a hairline split on the neck. It never really bothered me. It wasn’t something I could notice as I played, and it didn’t hinder how it sounded or how it looked. Honestly, I forgot about it.
In the 15 years that I’ve had that guitar, other ones have came and left. But, I still always cherished the little blue guitar.
For the past few months it’s been in a bag case by my desk at school. As I was sitting at my desk in class, it fell. I don’t know if it was gravity, or me accidentally hitting it, but over she went. When I went to pick it back up and continue with my lesson, the neck was hanging out of the bag perpendicularly from the body of the guitar.
Even if you know nothing about guitars, seeing part of it sticking out at a 90-degree-angle is a tell-tale sign that something ain't right. And it wasn't.
I quietly leaned down and surveyed the damage. I grabbed the body in one hand, and the headstock in my right. I quickly realized what caused the sudden snap: the spot where the head had splintered off from the fall was in the exact same spot as the crack all those years ago.
Forgotten damage that had been done previously, had weakened a once-strong place on that guitar, and on a random Tuesday, did permanent damage.
Had I taken care of the issue long ago, I might have been saved from the pain of this week.
Infection is caused when a wound is left unattended and untreated. Left that way, it can cause irreparable damage or even death.
How often is that true in our lives? A past hurt, maybe even one once forgotten, comes barreling through on a random day when you least expect it. A normal day becomes unforgettable because of a forgotten wound left untreated.
However, all is not lost.
I can take my broken neck of that old blue guitar to a local guitar expert and (hopefully) get it repaired at a cost. It may not play the same, and it for sure won’t look the same, but music will come from it again.
Your heart is the same way. All is not lost for you, either.
You can take the brokenness of that old past hurt to THE Healer and (assuredly) get it repaired at NO cost. He already paid it in full. Unlike the patching and mending earthly doctors and gorilla glue, His mending is perfect and eternal.
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