The Sawyers have undertaken two different do-it-ourselves painting projects this summer.
Project One: Amy is currently hard at work, painting the cabinets in our kitchen, which have thirteen years of wear and tear (and grit and grime) on them. It’s going to look awesome!
And, Project Two: Back in late May, I took my trusty Fender Stratocaster guitar apart and set about repainting and refinishing it.
My Stratocaster was made in 2002 and I purchased it, used, in 2019 but the years had not been kind to it. The previous owner(s) had given it all kinds of dents and dings, gouged out some of the wood, worn the paint off in places, and drilled extra holes in it. It was definitely an “Ugly Duckling” kind of guitar when I found it at the guitar store and bought it. And yet, the salesperson said, “This is currently the ’Strattiest Strat’ in the whole store!” It was. Because, no matter how it bad it looked, there was something to the guitar. . . it had a certain “thing” – a soul, a vibe, a sound, a je ne sais qois that made it great.
Despite the soul of the guitar sounding and feeling great, the guitar still did look pretty beat up. And painting it seemed like a much cheaper option than saving up to buy a new one. So, I set about stripping the old paint, sanding the body, and repainting it and refinishing it with nitrocellulose paint and lacquer – the kind of stuff that was used to paint and finish guitar bodies in the 1950’s. All of the spray painting and lacquer application was done in our garage at home and it took ALL summer.
A few weeks ago, I declared the project finished, did some final buffing of the guitar body and then I put the whole thing back together. It looks transformed like a “new” guitar (albeit with a few dents and dings and imperfections that I might see, but others probably won’t).
The funny thing is, with all of the work that went into it, it still is the same guitar. It might look very different, but the “soul,” if you will, is still intact. The guitar looks different on the outside, but it’s still the same guitar, on the inside. And yet, this past week I had the chance to play it again, in public, for the first time and I played it differently. Did the change to the guitar change me in the process? I don’t know, but something’s different.
In our culture, there is so much focus on the “exterior” of things – how things (and people!) look on the outside. There’s even this movement called “looksmaxxing” that causes people to go to extremes when it comes to their looks. But, as I was always told growing up, no matter what our outside looks like, it’s always what’s on the inside that truly counts. This is where God is at work – on the inside – in ways that only God truly knows, but in ways that have a direct effect how our lives are lived. The interior work of God has an impact on our exterior – not just in how we look but how we live.
How is God at work in your heart, and mind, and soul? How is God at work in the heart, mind, and soul of our congregation? I am excited to see what God has in store for the way we play and the way we live our faith.
See you in church!
Grace and Peace,
John
Prepare for Worship
This Week: “When We Talk About Jesus. . .” (But Who Do You Say That I Am?)
Read Matthew 16:13-20
Read Isaiah 51:1-6
Read 1 Peter 2:4-10
Read or sing Hymn # 832 – “Here on Jesus Christ I Will Stand”
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Preview YouTube video Here on Jesus Christ I Will Stand, by Hymn #832Preview YouTube video Here on Jesus Christ I Will Stand, by Hymn #832