Guitar Strings

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 (NKJV)
New guitar strings always make a guitar sound better! You kind of get used to the “average” sound of your instrument, but it’s just so
refreshing to hear new strings kick in that extra level of twang, crispocity (okay, that word didn’t clear Spellcheck), resonance, and reverberance. I remember bragging about my new Black Diamond strings to another guitarist, Ten-Foot Joe. He just laughed and said, “Cheapest on the market, eh?” I guess I got told!
Some guitar players can even remember how they used to “refresh” old strings. When you lived in a remote community, when the store ran out of strings, when you didn’t have enough pesos to rub together, and when the option of getting a new set just wasn’t there, old-time pickers had a solution. They would boil the strings!
Boiling old guitar wires takes out all the crud that deadens their vibrancy. Sweat, bacon grease, Aqua Velva, sweat, dust, spilled drinks,
sweat, dirt, gravy and more sweat will kill the sweet sound of a guitar string. Boiling takes that away, bringing an old string back to life again.
Sometimes our spiritual walk can get to the place where it loses its vibrancy—where the excitement of mercy received and sin forgiven is muddied by the decimating downers of the daily grind. Our “strings” lose their sweet tone and our lives don’t resonate the way our Creator designed them to.
God knows what it takes to get us back on track. Sometimes that cure isn’t the most comfortable, and often resembles the string-boiling process! Yup, God uses tough situations in our lives to restore our spiritual vibrancy. Personal losses, strained relationships, overdrawn bank accounts, friends’ funerals, health challenges, discouragement, abandonment or whatever we’re facing . . . God can use those muddy (boiling?) waters to bring us back to where our lives reflect Jesus again!
– Kene Jackson
 
Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website.
Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org