Back in college I overpaid for a black Washburn acoustic/electric guitar that I thought would help propel my sound into the stratosphere. After a few years of use, I opened my case one-day to find that it was literally falling apart. To my dismay, the part that connects the strings to the face of the guitar, known as the bridge, was pulling away from the guitar! Which is not a good thing. But as I had become more focused on the electric guitar at the time, I simply put it back in the case and made a mental note that, ‘I should get that fixed.’
That idea then got transferred to my official spreadsheet of New Years resolutions and goals some ten years ago. However, as many of us know, just writing something we want to get done doesn’t actually get it done. The first few years of good intention I chalked up to a period of time when babies were being born and the budget for guitar repair was crushed by the weight of wet wipes and onesies.
So on the list it sat, each year being added again with new resolution and intent. It wasn’t until after four years I decided it was time to stop talking about it and get it done. I made the hour and half trip to the nearest repair shop I knew, left it with them and was ready to check off my long lasting goal. I, however, got the call that there was a problem. The repair wasn’t working and ultimately was informed it was ‘unfixable’. Standing in the exact same place where, years earlier, I was contemplating the purchase, dreaming in expectation of how this guitar would be worth the money, this information was beating that dream to a pulp and performing it’s funeral.
I took the remains of my guitar home and took the goal off the list. What do you do with a guitar that looks cool, cost a lot of money, and doesn’t work? Good question. I would just keep in storage for a few years and then displayed it in a guitar rack for another few. Then one day I had an idea, which I believe it was from the Lord. That maybe the repair people here in Nashville, Tennessee are better at repairing guitars than the twenty something guy from the small town in Colorado. I wonder if they could fix it? Boom! Back on the list it goes. Took a few months to get it down there but after two weeks of waiting and couple hundred dollars, I have a working guitar again.
It has been 10 years of wanting to get it fixed but I didn’t seem to have the money, the time, the right people working on it, and for awhile even the belief that it was possible. I know it’s just a story about an overpriced poorly made guitar, but it made me think about the other goals and dreams in my life that have been on my list for more than one year but for whatever reason haven’t come to pass. Is there a key the Lord could show me that will unlock them? Have I lost the belief that it’s possible because of what other people (so called ‘experts’) have told me? While I always put new goals and resolutions down on paper, in 2017 I am letting old dreams live again and hope this story helps you do the same.