Breakout

I am continually impressed by the effect of time passing to alter my perceptions. The guitar is something of a hobby I’ve been involved with for over a decade now. It started, to be honest, because I wanted to be a rock star (obviously). I liked it well enough, that was just the seed, I guess. In 1998 I purchased my first real life fender telecaster. 

Prior to the Tele I played a squire Stratocaster. It’s a fender sub-brand so the Tele was my first REAL guitar, right? Right. The thing is so sturdy it almost feels as if God carved it out of granite. It is said that Gavin Rossdale of Bush once attempted to smash a Tele on stage but only managed to bend the truss rod.

I tried to sell it. Twice. God apparently thinks I shouldn’t cause… 

here I am 16 years later playing it.

A song reminded me of something years ago “The Heart of Worship”. The premise of the song is built on the idea that we can be worshipping things that are not God when we are worshipping God for the wrong reasons. The chorus goes like this:

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
and its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it when its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.

We used to play this in the youth band ALL the time. In hindsight this was terribly ironic. At least half of the youth band was composed of non-Christians leading people in a song about the importance of being mindful of who we worship and why we do it. In looking back I feel pretty strongly that I was one of those lost souls. So here I was over a decade later playing the same song with a new perspective. The right perspective. It really struck a chord (pun) in me.

I had many idols.

Some of common materials and some of fine porcelain. As beautiful and trustworthy as they seemed these idols were crutches, a mistake which was mine and mine alone. In treating good things as if they could supply ultimate satisfaction I soiled them. 

Ever seen a porcelain crutch? Probably not.

The substance is just not strong enough to hold up the weight of a man. Its not the fualt of the substance because its purpose isn't to do that. Its the fault of the one that misuses it.

Especially a boy with such a burden as mine.

And so the Lord, in His mercy, tore from my hands all my idols. I tried to hold on and what could break did. What could cut did. What could let me fall did and for the first time in my life I fell crashing to the earth. I was crushed under the weight of my burden. My crooked bones became powder.

That was mercy but that’s not all.

The reason that was mercy is found in what came next. The Lord took the remains and began molding a new man with a new heart, a new face, a new perspective, and He ever taught me to live a new life. The scars remind me of what I was before and the mended bones remind me of what it took to get me where I am. My heart still makes idols of things but the Lord is quick to remind me of a time when I worshipped a tiny little idol instead of the best thing in the universe;

Jesus Christ

It matters not what “it” is. No beauty can outshine the glory of God. He simply won’t allow it and if you are truly His… He won’t let you be deceived into thinking in such a way for long.

I am thankful for the reminders of the past. Regret finds its way into the memories often but the Lord is quick to remind me that I was ignorant of what it meant to be a man and I was incapable of fulfilling those requirements apart from Him… then He reminds me that changed somewhere along the way. 

Then I remember the infinite scope of God’s unfathomably deep love towards all who cry out for His mercy by the blood of Christ.
 

I would say be mindful of your idols but if you are mindful of Christ preeminently the problem will resolve itself.