Discipleship

Changing the Strings

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No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. Hebrews 12:11 NLT

I love playing guitar, and one of my favorite things is to sit alone and play worship music after putting on a set of new strings. But on the other hand, my least favorite thing is changing those blasted strings! One by one, the old strings must be unwound, then, after carefully pulling out each peg, new ones can be put in their place. Then, slowly and gently, each one has to be stretched till its sound equals the pitch pipe’s note. Finally, when everything sounds great, you play a few chords and -voila! = it is immediately out of tune! Yep, those new strings aren’t ready for prime time, till they’ve been played and retuned, over and over. Restringing my guitar today, reminded of the verse from Hebrews about discipline, and how God has been doing some needed restringing in my life this week.

I had used my busyness as an excuse and failed to keep my promise to visit someone. Though I probably visited a hundred people that week, I failed to listen to the Spirit’s prompting to make time in my schedule. “I will get there next week.” I thought. But sadly, my friend didn’t have another week, because yesterday he passed away. As I prayed in the room with friends and family, the daughter’s words of the previous night rang in my ears, “Pastor Pete, you didn’t come!” Yes, I am sorry, and yes, she forgave me and best of all, yes, he had prayed with her to receive Christ the previous week when I wasn’t there. The hands of God are turning the tuning pegs of my life today and unwinding old habits and stretching my heart, till it sounds more like Heaven’s melody and less like the world around me.

How wonderful God’s mercy, that restores and helps us even in our failures. For me that blessing came when I heard our friend tell us of her final conversation with her dad. Though he could no longer communicate his eyes looked around till he saw his daughter. Then, she held his hand saying, “It’s okay daddy. The sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s a good day to go to Heaven.” Then, just moments later, he slipped into the arms of Jesus, and those words will forever remind me that, God is never too busy.

Changing the Strings

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment 
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11 NIV

Changing the strings is my least favorite chore as a guitar player. I imagine there are players who pay someone else to do this for them, but over nearly sixty years, I have only had it done once and that during repairs. As I was wrestling away with unwinding the old strings, to make way for a new set yesterday, it struck me that God’s discipline in our lives is sometimes a lot like that process. For non-guitar folks out there, the simple truth is that our instruments do not stay tuned for long. After playing for even for twenty minutes, our instrument already is needing a twist or two on the tuning pegs. When play regularly, over three or four months we discover that even after a careful retuning, that the tone is sounding blah. Yes, the newer strings last a lot longer than what we had back in the sixties, but even our latest and greatest have a lifespan. The time for that new set makes itself known when you see a bit of a shredding here and there on the bass strings.

The same thing happens our own lives and unwelcome as the process is, God chooses seasons of restringing, which the Bible calls discipline. Just as with my guitar, restringing doesn’t mean I am mad at my instrument, nor am I contemplating trading it in for a new model. God’s discipline indicates that a simple retuning will no longer do. He knows what we need is a whole new set of circumstances, better friends, a new job or (you fill in the blank.} And just like restringing, discipline means both the long slow process of unwinding the old, as well as the tedious stretching and tensioning of the new. Relationships, habits or opinions that God intends to change have been there a long time and loosening them and pulling them out doesn’t happen in an instant. We moan and groan as God slowly pries our fingers loose from what we are dearly clinging on to, because we have difficulty trusting that the new set of strings that He has for us will sound far sweeter. But wait there’s more! But you will need to tune in for tomorrow’s post to hear the rest of the story!

Editing Advice from the Orchard – Part 3 – Removing that Fire Blight

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment 
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 
John 15:8 NIV

Finally, we come to the last and most difficult things to prune and those are the diseased branches. In apple trees these are branches infected with a bacteria called fire blight, and every old tree has a little. Though there is no known cure, a careful pruning can extend the life of a tree for years. If the sucker growth is the most obnoxious, and the deadwood most obvious, diseased branches as well as diseased writing, is the most obtuse to deal with. You see, sucker growth will never bear fruit and deadwood cannot bear fruit, but blighted limbs may still produce a few withered looking apples. In our writing, disease is not about the double negatives, misspelled words or run on sentences, it has to do with the why’s of our craft and the motives behind our manuscripts.

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If we are just churning out slick stories that appeal to the lowest desires of readers, there may be a bit of fire light creeping in. When we start finger pointing at the faults of others or stirring people to angry debate instead of compassionate service, it is time to ask God to heal our hearts. Eventually a blighted heart will catch up with us, and if left unchecked, will destroy the very purpose for which God called us to write. The secret is that just as trimming in the orchard is done in the Winter, God will choose the Wintertime in our life to root out a diseased direction. And in the editing of our writing, we will work best once the heat of inspiration has worn off and we can come to our pages, with passionless eyes, sharp pencils, and a determination to clear out everything that hampers a great harvest. Then we need to pray that the words we put on the pages of our life as well as our manuscripts will inspire readers to trust in God’s promises, grow in His grace and be filled with the hope that comes only from Him!