Rock On

Ever since I was "knee high to a grasshopper" I have dreamed of playing lead guitar in a rocking band. The big hair, spandex, bright lights, huge stage, and a face melting guitar riff, I was going to have it all! I always knew once I got a guitar destiny would take over and it would all just happen. Then finally several years ago a friend gave me an old acoustic that he had. He tuned it up, played it for me to show me it was good, man it sounded great! I was pumped! I got home, took it out of the case, wailed away for about a half hour.

Well I am sure you know when you rock like skillet on an old nylon string acoustic it doesn't take long before it is completely out of tune, and sounding like a cat with it's tail stuck in the door. Not that is sounded good when I was playing, but at least it was in tune. The passion quickly got consumed by the real world and now it sits in my office in the corner leaning against a file cabinet.

Recently I realized my downfall. Big hair, spandex wearing rockers don't play classical acoustic guitars. What I needed was an electric guitar and of course an amp that I could crank to 11. The passion was back and I was on a quest for the right electric guitar that would make my dream of rocking come true. (right guitar, meaning cheap guitar)

I finally acquired the six string musical machine from a student at church. He had apparently decided to trade his dream of rocking for a video game and $20. Same scenario, back to my office tuned it up, plugged it in, turned it to 11 and the crowd went wild! (at least in my mind). This continued for several days, and quickly turned into once a week, and now it looks nice sitting in it's stand in the other corner of my office. I can play no more then I could with the acoustic, my dream of playing with STRYPER is slipping away each day.

I was driving home last night after closing my office door and saying good night to both guitars which I cannot play and this thought hit me. These two guitars collecting dust, and my dreams of rocking are just like so many Christians. My vision of what my future would be as a rocker, my passion for learning quickly went away once it really started to take work. I mean really, I should take lessons, I should read some books, my fingers will get all calloused. Who's got time for all that?

Our life as a christian can be the same way. We have a vision of what life should look like once we claim to be a follower of Christ. Then we realize that life is still hard, (usually harder) we don't "feel" any closer to God, and we continue to struggle with sin. Our passion for reading the Bible, prayer, and witnessing slowly fade and our relationship with God, gets put in the corner just as my guitars. We look at them from time to time, but they only remind us of how hard it is, and we always think "tomorrow I will start".

Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (NIV) Our relationship with God takes work. A strong life of faith, walking in obedience, a knowledge of Scripture, and a passionate relationship with Jesus don't just happen. We need to seek after it. When we are to busy, we need to seek Him. When we are to tired, we need to seek Him. When life hurts, we need to seek Him.

So maybe today, I will take 10 minutes, plug in the guitar and patiently try to learn some chords. And maybe today, we should all take 10 minutes read our Bibles and pray.