011. Wondering While Wandering — March '24
Tuned to sing His grace
Tuned to Sing His Grace
An Easter Meditation
Yesterday was Good Friday, and as part of preparing for leading our church in worship through music on Easter Sunday I changed the strings on my guitar.
The passage of time combined with repeated use steals the bright luster and deep resonance of the sound a guitar produces when played, but the change is so gradual that I usually don’t notice it. It’s often only in the contrast between the sound the old strings produce just before being removed and the first rich and brilliant strums of the new set of strings that I realize just how much the sound had changed. It isn’t too much of an exaggeration to say it almost sounds like a completely new instrument afterwards!
The process of restringing a guitar has become second nature to me by now. The hundreds — if not thousands — of strings that I’ve changed in twenty years of playing guitar has imprinted the process deep into my physical memory. But just because I know the task by rote does not mean that there are no new aspects of it that come to the forefront when I go through the process again.
Near the midpoint of my work, I found myself considering the physical guitar strings themselves. Stringed instruments produce their sound when the strings are plucked or strummed, which involves applying great and exact amounts of tension to the strings. As they are stretched taut, the vibrational frequency of the strings changes, climbing higher the tighter they are stretched. These vibrations are each associated with musical notes on the scale, and in specific combinations produce the chords and musical progressions that form a familiar (or new) tune.
Doubtless because it was Good Friday, my mind suddenly made the connection between the strings I was stretching taut on my guitar and the arms of the Savior stretched wide on the cross. My routine task was suddenly revealed as an echo, distant as it may be, of the suffering of the Savior. Both had purpose and intent behind them. Of course, the purposes are orders of magnitude apart as far as their significance is concerned. But the stretching, the pain, was not for naught: there was a goal to accomplish in the task: death followed by rebirth.
The popular hymn “Come Thou Fount” contains the line “Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” I’ve always thought of this as a mostly mental activity, a focusing of the mind and heart in preparation to pay the attention that God deserves during a time of worship. But this brief meditation on the arms of Jesus spread wide on the Cross and the incredible amounts of tension and force applied to the strings of an instrument makes me wonder if the prayer to “tune my heart” includes the tension, pain, and stretching of trials and suffering.
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Because whether it comes from evils outside of us or as the consequences of our own sinful choices, suffering can and is — blessedly! mysteriously! — redeemed by God to contribute to our sanctification and growth. In Genesis 50:10, Joseph can amazingly, even confoundingly say to his brothers that sold him into slavery “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
We are of course not alone in our suffering. Christ has not just passed through the greatest suffering imaginable and come through on the other side: He is also with us in the midst of our own sufferings through the presence and comfort of the Spirit.
I finished restringing my guitar, still pondering all these thoughts as I struck the first chord of the new set of strings. As always, its depth and richness showed me just how much the sound had diminished over time, and I held a seemingly new instrument in my hands.
The sound will of course fade. Unlike Christ’s finished work on the cross, I will need to repeat this process again before too long. But now I see it as an echo of that work, a lesson for my suffering, and a reminder of the purpose behind the pain.
I have been more stretched by trial and suffering this past year than any other of my life. And though I don’t see or understand all the purpose behind it (and perhaps never will), I desire and trust that one thing to come from it will be a heart better tuned to sing of God’s grace.
Kid Corner
I mean, it’s not that I don’t also want to watch TV…
Funnies
Classic tumblr post where someone forgets a very important detail from the life of Jesus…
File this under “names that would be ominous if they were given before the event and not after”
One more Holy Week one for us all:
Can confirm:
Reading, Listening, or Watching
Abbott Elementary — class is back in session at Abbott and we’re continuing to enjoy season 3.
Frasier — a few weeks ago we realized we’d somehow missed completing the final two seasons of Frasier! It was a delight to discover there were still new episodes of one of our favorite shows to experience. We’re in the final season now and savoring them much as the Crane brothers would savor the final performance of a beloved opera star or the last portions of a particularly excellent vintage of sherry.
Dune 2 — we saw this on IMAX and it was as epic as advertised. I found it to be an adaptation that stayed true to the book while making some sensible changes to adapt it to the big screen. It’s a cinematic masterpiece for sure. But (without any spoilers) while I think its achievements rise to a height that surpasses the first installment, I found that I was more emotionally invested in the first part and connected more with the characters as they are in that film than in the second part. A small quibble, but still immensely enjoyed it.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug — wow there are some excellent sequences in this movie (Bilbo and Smaug’s back and forth within the Lonely Mountain stands out)…and boy are there lots of really rough sequences and baffling decisions. I’m reminded why I never saw the third installment…though that’s the plan for sometime in the coming weeks! We’ll see how it goes.
The Silmarillion — resuming my commute to work a few days a week has given me plenty of time to listen to things, so I decided it was the perfect time to finish my listen-through of Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. An epic tale that I enjoyed just as much as the last time that I read it.
That’s all for this Wondering While Wandering! Thank you as always for reading and caring.
For discussion: what are you enjoying, reading, watching, learning, etc?