I Was Ashamed to Carry My Violin

My violin case was cheap, made from a super-hard cardboard material.  It got me by though, when I didn’t drag it on the floor.  But one particular day I dragged it. I was using it, going from 2^nd to 3^rd period classes, as if it were a walking cane. I was in 9^th grade. I didn’t need a walking cane.

My parents had gotten me started on violin lessons in Decorah, Iowa, where I spent most of my early boyhood. Orinne Docken was a good teacher.  I recall being intrigued when I heard the advanced music a neighbor boy was able to play. He was about five years older.  But now that I was five years older myself, I was at Stewart Junior High in Tacoma, and it wasn’t cool to play violin.   Basketball was cool. Trumpet was cool. But not violin. The walking cane pose was pretty lame, but it helped take the edge off my self-consciousness.

I am now 64.  I teach violin. I serve as a pastor at a rural Midwest church, and I use music teaching to connect with young people.  The surprise for me however, has been that I enjoy it. Teaching music lessons adds a component to my ministry that otherwise would be missing. There are many aspects to this. Certainly I have to keep up my own chops in regular playing. In addition, though, I have the privilege of working with children and helping them develop learning skills.  This takes some extra effort on my part. How does one help a left-handed child develop the many skills necessary in bowing with the right (and correct) hand? The details are myriad. Another is the avoidance and fear of printed music: often kids will favor the intuitive approach, where you just guess at the pitches and try to imitate the teacher’s finger motions.  There are many types of hurdles, but for me one thing stands out. I see myself in the kids, with my earlier period of learning and struggling. I’m still trying to be a learner myself, of course, but I can identify with their struggles. I try to help them through barriers with various means of encouragement and bite-size exercises.

These days, however, I find that I have a treasure to share. What we have to endure when we’re younger can be a pain in the rear. But by God’s grace it can become a treasure, if we don’t run from the toughness of the training. My parents gently but firmly kept encouraging me.  

What did you learn in your growing years?  Can you take it and use it with someone currently in the trenches? Tell them your story may encourage them.  Be there for them and listen to them a bit. However the Lord leads, I hope that you will find things you endured that will help someone else stick with the program.  The alternative, all too often, is to hear a person later in life say what I have heard too many times: “Oh, I wish I had never quit music lessons.” 

Whether its music, mechanical skills, science, or whatever – encourage them. Hang in there! Don’t quit!

His Word Runs Swiftly – How About Yours?

I remember a funny cartoon. It pictures a man with mouth wide open. He is speaking, and you know this because the cartoonist displays prominently the “bubble” of what the man is saying. The head is large – out of proportion – and he’s smiling a big toothy smile as he speaks, obviously pleased with himself.  His words are “Blah, Blah, Blah.”   

I suppose that’s a picture of a lot of us – at least before we learn a few things. At times I have wasted words when I felt my intended meaning was being missed, or deliberately twisted. Frustrated and angry, I would speak louder but wasn’t prepared to clarify anything! I suppose in such situations, if you can identify with that, we are using words as swords. Dueling. Trying to slash back.  Words should rather be used to enlighten or encourage.

The one who created the universe doesn’t waste his words.  The psalmist describes this (Psalm 33:4-9). He says that all of God’s words are upright. None are wasted.  Whenever he speaks, God is doing something worthwhile.

Take Jesus, for example. Matthew records remarkable things about his words in chapter 8 of his gospel. I have often read these words aloud right before praying for desperate people. Matthew shows the connection between Jesus’ healing and his words. A Roman soldier brings an urgent request in regard to his servant who lies paralyzed and “in terrible distress”. This soldier understands authority and “chain of command” because he is a commander himself. Jesus speaks up and says, “Go, and let it be done for you as you have believed.” Matthew writes that the healing took place at the very moment Jesus spoke. 

Another note from the same section:  “He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.” Whether Jesus is teaching or rebuking, we see the same reaction from witnesses. They remark with respect and even shock: “He speaks with authority, and not as the scribes!” They also say, “Who on earth is this?  Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

It’s probably a good time to think about valued words and wasted words. In an election year everyone is running around saying many things. Some are thought through carefully. Some words are just thrown out there to slash away at opponents. It’s a time to take warning. Jesus said, “People will have to account for every careless word they speak,” and “by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

I have been chastised at times because my words didn’t line up with my actions. The warning helped me! Words are important. This thing called speech is one great thing we have over the animal kingdom: we speak as well as act, and our language is complex, highly organized, and useful to kill or heal. We can heal and encourage when speaking God’s word, and of course Jesus Christ is that very word of God – in the flesh.  God’s word to you is “I have come that you might have life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Your sins are forgiven.” Take his word for it.