Blogosphere, meet my guitars. The Martin Dreadnought acoustic is the one on the left and the Fender American Stratocaster (with double humbucker pickup) is the one on the right.
Guitars, meet the blogosphere.
I love these instruments and miss them fiercely whenever Joan and I travel.
Lately I have found that coming up here in the evening and playing them is a great tonic for my soul.
I have been playing for a few years now, but don’t really consider myself a guitarist. I’m just a guy who fools around on the guitar now and then. In case you are curious, there are two foolproof ways you can tell that that I am not a real guitarist:
- First, I have not named my guitars.
- Second, I only have two of them.
(It suddenly occurs to me there is a third, foolproof way to verify my “non-guitarist” status: listen to me play.)
Most of the time, I play in order to calm and entertain myself. Sometimes I sit down and try to learn a new song to add to my repertoire. Sometimes I just come to work on simple scales and finger exercises.
Since I am no longer taking weekly lessons or playing in a jam band or the church’s praise band, there is not a regular, external motivation to keep at it.
No motivation, that is, except for the maintenance of my callouses.
Anyone who plays guitar with regularity will attest to the importance of healthy callouses on the fingertips of the fretting hand. Callouses are the toughened areas of skin that keep the steel wires of the guitar string from cutting into you and making you bleed all over the lovely woodwork. If you don’t play with some level of frequency, your callouses will get soft. Playing will become painful.
In that sense, you could say that playing the guitar is the exact opposite of engaging in the disciplines of the Christian spiritual life.
In the world of the guitar, the discipline and regularity of practice helps BUILD UP and harden your fingertips. It prevents your playing and practice from being painful.
The aim of the spiritual disciplines, on the other hand, is to SOFTEN us… to make us more OPEN and VULNERABLiE to the world around us… to EXPOSE us to the “still, small voice” of God that Elijah heard, or to make us more susceptible to the pain and heartbreak of a neighbor who isn’t necessarily part of our “tribe.”
The goal, in other words, of all the Christian study and prayer and fasting and worship we do should be to heighten our compassion (from the Latin, com passio, “to feel with.”).
When Jesus blessed the “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3) during his Sermon on the Mount, he was talking about exactly these people: the people for whom the callouses around their hearts have worn away and softened.
The culture instructs us to “toughen up” and blast our way through the pain and tragedy and heartbreak of the world around us. “Take charge!” is the battle cry. “Grow thick callouses!”
But a mere two verses later (in Matt. 5:5) Jesus tells us who will REALLY inherit the earth.
Maybe we should listen to him!
Russellings of the Spirit 
That is a good analogy and object lesson.
Russell,
Son, Steve, now 68, at fourteen, designed, drew and hand colored Christmas cards and sold them to our generous and loving friends to make the down payment on his Gibson acoustic and still plays and leads the singing when the clan gathers. Son David who builds and plays drums, owns eleven guitars, but doesn’t play much at all. I own one guitar that is a good one, whose name escapes me, but can’t play. I tried but went back to the piano.
I enjoyed your blog. Hope you are well, and Joan is okay with her condition. I gotta believe that having her daughter near is consoling.
All good wishes,
Warren
I used to see that guitar in your living room whenever I came for our sessions and wondered whose it was. I say whatever speaks to your soul should be what you spend your time with. Great to hear from you, friend. Joan and I are both well, but a little antsy to come out of quarantine. All my best to Dian! Take good care of yourself, too.