Unshackled Moments ~ June 2 ~ I Can't Play Guitar

I would love to be able to play the guitar. I've gone as far as to borrow a guitar and buy books that are supposed to teach you to play. I've thought about buying the Xbox game that allows you to plug a guitar into the gaming system and teaches you to play. But while I like the idea of being able to play and say I would love to be able to, I don't care enough to do what it would take. I envy the ability of others and become momentarily inspired to learn, but in truth I do not want to, at least not enough to sacrifice the time, hurt my fingers until callouses build up, to be bad until I finally progress to mediocre, etc. If I could be gifted an instant ability, wonderful, but otherwise I'll just listen to others play.

That tells me that I don't have a passion for the guitar. There are things that take work, time, practice, pain, and more that I wouldn't mind having handed to me, but don't care enough to pay the price for. There are things that I would spend the time it takes, go through discomfort and pain for, spend money on, practice, work at and strive for. These are my passions. Yours are probably different than mine.

There are some things that no matter what, we're just not ever going to be able to learn to do or have, if we are not willing to sacrifice time and or comfort. That is why Jesus told us to count the cost of following Him. It's not comfortable or easy to surrender and to sacrifice self. It's so hard at first that it's impossible to do even a little bit without God's grace. Even after years of practice, when outsiders who observe the music of our life may think we've got it down, it isn't that we've gotten better at doing it, only that we've gotten better at relying on His grace.

Bowing the knee doesn't come easy, and it hurts until the callouses build up. Putting our lives on the altar as living sacrifices and dying to self feels a lot like suicide. Our self cries out but I don't want to die! Meanwhile our spirit seeks to do the will of our Heavenly Daddy. We are able to walk with God only by His grace, freely given to us. The price of admission into the relationship with our Creator is free. He paid the price Himself, and it costs us nothing. But the daily dues of walking with Him are everything. It costs all we are, all we have, all we dream of and hope for. We must decrease and allow Him to increase while we give up ourselves, the good and the bad, for His purpose and glory.

Oh my goodness, that sounds counterproductive and crazy! What would make that worth it? Well, the truth is that when we refuse to release our life, to sacrifice it or lose it, and we hold on tightly to our rights, our dreams, our desires, we find ourselves trudging through a miserable, empty and ultimately hopeless existence. Trying to live leads to death. But when we give God our lives, sacrifice our will and desires, He takes that offering and turns us into His instrument. Suddenly we can hear the music He makes with our life, and we have the understanding that life is suddenly worth living, that it is wonderful, and that in giving up what we thought we wanted, what we thought worth our time and effort we found what never sounded  like much but was in fact what we were always searching for and the purpose we were made for. In finding and fulfilling that purpose we find a passionate joy, peace and love that is infinitely better than everything else.

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