You can find life lessons in pretty much anything. Or so I've learned.
I have always enjoyed music, and for years now have had the desire to learn guitar. Sometime after I moved to Missouri, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a guitar so I could learn. Since paying for lessons was out of the question, I resolved to teach myself. Always a great idea… (not). I picked it up a few times, taught myself some chords, and then didn’t touch the guitar for months… maybe even a couple years. Eventually, quarantine happened. I had all the time in the world to learn now, right? No excuses, right…? Funny how we can so easily fill our time. I found lots of things to do over quarantine. Some really good (like running and refinishing furniture), some major time wasters (like binge-watching tv shows). I may have picked up the guitar a few times, but not much. Then when I quit my job, I thought to myself “This is the time. For real this time.” Aaaand… it wasn’t.
Last May, we brought on a new worship pastor at our church. His daughter absolutely loves playing guitar, and I had mentioned in passing that I wanted to learn. Thus began an incredible relationship with my friend Maggy, and an awesome experience actually learning (for real this time) how to play. Having weekly lessons was the push I needed to stay accountable to practicing (most weeks, anyway). Recently, I was gifted two very nice, new (to me) guitars from my mother-in-law. She surprised me with them, and to say I was grateful and excited is an understatement. I picked one of the guitars up and messed around with it that day, and fell in love with the sound.
I am still very much in the learning process, but over the last couple of weeks I have made incredible strides and can actually play some songs all the way through. It has been so fun to experience this growth, and is a reminder of a few things:
- We are not made to be stagnant. We are made to continue learning, growing, developing, and maturing. Sometimes these things are painful, like your fingers feel after a few hours of playing guitar. But in the end, it’s so worth it.
- Learning new things is so fun! Sometimes I forget because at the beginning it can be hard and feel overwhelming. But learning and mastering new skills is a great gift and joy (especially when you’re not being graded on it lol).
- Learning guitar, like running, or our spiritual walks, is a discipline. It takes time, it takes energy, and it takes intentionality. You don’t just pick up a guitar and know how to play, just like you don’t go out without training and qualify for Boston. And there is so much blessing in the time of learning. I often want to skip to the end results, where I’ve mastered something. But there is so much to be celebrated in the journey.
- Things are rarely, truly "mastered". There is always more learning to be done. This is true in photography, this seems to be true in guitar, and this is true in life in general. We always have more to learn, and it’s important to remember that.
