I’ve neglected spending time playing my guitar for several years. It’s a mighty fine guitar. I was blessed to be in the right place at the right time in the late 1970’s when a friend wanted to sell it and buy a fancier one. (It was made in 1973, the year Sharon and I were married – neat, huh?)

Over time, I noticed it wasn’t sounding like it once did (more than just my being out of     practice.) Little by little the sound had degraded – a rattle here, a buzz there, dull sounding, a piece of binding coming loose, etc. It still sounded ok, but because it happened slowly over time, the level of degradation wasn’t obvious.

I often mentioned to Sharon that I needed to take it to Randy Wood, but never followed through. (fyi – Randy Wood is a premier instrument maker/customizer/repairer who has built       instruments and done work through the years for Elvis, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, etc. Randy was in the middle of the Nashville scene for years and got tired of the hustle-bustle and somehow ended up with a shop in Bloomingdale, Georgia.)

Last Christmas, after many mentions by me of what I needed to do, Sharon told me what her Christmas present to me was going to be – she was going to insist that I take the guitar to Randy’s shop the first week in January. Those who know me, know that Sharon moving from suggesting and encouraging to insisting on something pretty much makes it a done deal for me. So, I took it in, and it was repaired. It was in bad shape. They reset the neck, glued a couple of braces back into place, reset the binding, cleaned it up and changed the strings. And, the first time I strummed a G chord in its “like new” condition, tears came to my eyes. How wonderful! That’s the way it was made to sound. How could I have let it go like I did?

Many things we let slide aren’t physical, like my guitar, but are spiritual. The first steps in    correcting those are prayer, faith and obedience to God. Another step could be looking for someone with wisdom and life experiences they can use to help us. And, we can look for someone who loves us enough to insist on something (whatever that may be.)
Then, as we go through that process, we can ask God to help us learn enough to become someone else’s “expert” when they need it, and love them enough to insist.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,” Hebrews 10:24