by Mick Schatz
ROSCOMMON, MI – I have a distinct love and appreciation of wooden instruments, especially acoustic guitars. I have owned quite a few over the years of various brands. Even though I don’t play them extremely well, I thoroughly love the look, feel and sound of the different types of woods with which they are made. Each wood is different in sound and depth of tone giving each guitar its own individual uniqueness. Along with owning an acoustic guitar, as with any wooden instrument, there is periodic maintenance required to keep them in good sounding condition.
One very important fact I had to learn as an acoustic guitar owner is that guitars are thirsty. What does that mean you might ask - that sounds a little strange. Acoustic guitars, like all wooden instruments, require water to stay in good working/sounding condition. They must be kept in a humidified space, or the wood begins to dry out. The tops begin to crack, the neck begins to warp, and the instrument begins to sound bad and not function like it should. It can become unusable. They must have water to perform the task for which they were created - make beautiful music in the hands of an artist.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but as Christians aren’t we supposed to be instruments in the hands of our Heavenly Father - the master artist - to be played and make beautiful sounds in this world to bring glory to Him and help others tune into His melodies of salvation and love?
For us to stay in good-sounding repair we must keep our souls properly maintained. We must keep our souls hydrated. A thirsty soul is a cracked soul - a warped soul - a soul that sounds out of tune. A dehydrated soul cannot play beautiful music - it’s not pleasant to the ears or attractive to the heart. The only solution for a dehydrated soul is “Living Water”.
In John chapter seven Jesus boldly declared, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”.
It’s easy to become dehydrated. A dried-up soul doesn’t happen overnight, but it will happen eventually if we don’t drink from the river of life. The “cares of this world” can squeeze us dry and make us unable to be used.
We must continually drink in the Spirit of Jesus and let Him hydrate our souls. We must let His Living Water flow deep as it fills in the cracks of anger and frustration and reshapes our warped sentiments of hopelessness, loneliness, discontent, and unbelief. The more we drink the more we can be used/played by Him. His Living Water floods our soul to the point we begin to flow out onto those around us.
And isn’t this what we were created for - to be a uniquely created instrument, masterfully played by our Creator bringing Heavenly sounds to a fallen world? Don’t be a thirsty guitar.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mick Schatz serves on the staff of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. He is the State Director of Spiritual Enrichment and Retreats and lives at Bambi Lake.