The Tales of a Taylor

so about 10 years ago i was given one of the most awesome gifts a kid in 11th grade could get.  my grandmother bought me an acoustic guitar.  now wasn't just any acoustic guitar.  she sent me to the music store with an uncle and just told me to find a guitar i like.  at the time i had no idea what to look for in a guitar, i just wanted it to sound and feel good.  well i guess i'm naturally drawn to expensive equipment because after we got back, i realized that it was a $2400 guitar!


in case you're wondering, or care to know these things, i got a Taylor 714CE.  it has a cedar top which gives it an amazingly deep tone compared to other taylor guitars.


well my grandma bought me this guitar because i had been leading our youth group worship band for about 2 or 3 months borrowing our youth minister's acoustic.  i had a decent electric at the time but it wasn't suitable to use leading by myself, so she bought me one.  so needless to say, this guitar has a good bit of value to me, both monetarily and sentimental.


I tell you all of that to tell you this...


a couple of weeks ago, due to a careless mistake, i put a nice big CRACK on the side of my Taylor.  when I saw it happen, I literally almost cried.  Now i've put some dings and scratches in it over the years, but I've never cracked a guitar before.


after calling the Taylor factory I realized that it would cost way too much to send up to them to repair so I called around and brought it to a local guy at the New Orleans Guitar Center.  after we looked at it together he told me that the damage was mostly cosmetic.  he suggested that I mark the ends of the crack and watch it.  if the crack grows then to do something but he didn't think it would.


those of you that know my wife well will laugh good at this, but she jokingly told me to put a band-aid on the crack until it got fixed.  if it were any other guitar than my taylor i would consider it but this is my 'serious' guitar.  no stickers on the case, and definitely no band-aids on the crack.


but my wife's sense of humor reminds me that my guitar is just a tool for the work God has called me to do.  no matter how much money the thing is worth, reduced down, it's made of wood, metal, and glue, nothing more.


so now, i'm playing with an injured Taylor but that doesn't really matter.  all the cracks and dings add character not only to the guitar, but to its owner who is continually being reminded that the material things we have in this world hold no eternal value.  whatever we have, we don't really own.  we are just managers of what God has given us.


"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21

Mark

so i've successfully read through Mark this week for my New Testament class.  for this class we are required to write an outline for each book so i thought i would share it with you.


here goes my extremely simple outline for the book of Mark:

• Jesus' Ministry up the mountain to the Transfiguration: Mark 1:1-9:13
• Jesus' Ministry down the mountain to the Cross: Mark 9:14 - the end. 

i know this is just a simple outline and most anybody could make a longer one, but i like simple. Mark is a simple, short book, but has a lot of good stuff in it. here's a quote from Mark that i absolutely love...


"It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." 2:17


david

Rambling #1

well hello again blogging world. it's been a while since i've been around here. i have so much to say and not enough time to type it. why you ask? because right now most of my time is going to school work. while it's a lot of work, i do usually enjoy what i'm learning once the semesters are over. that's usually when it actually starts to sink in.


as of right now, i have tons of reading to do each week, about 10 papers to write, and 5 other projects all due throughout the semester. but ... the plus side is ... i'm supposed to graduate with a Master's degree in may, so i'm actually pretty excited.


i would say one of the biggest positives of one class is that i'm going to read through the entire new testament for the semester. i've read most of it before, but not all of it, and definitely not in such a short time frame. i just hope i can retain some information along the way.


anyway, this week's reading: The Gospel of Mark. 16 chapters in 5 days. i started on monday and got through 13 so far. maybe i'll finish it tomorrow... oh and on top of that, my wife and i are reading through the bible together this year. yup, the whole thing. this is going to be an exciting year. i'll put up some details about this later.


well, this is truly one of my rambling posts. more of a stream of conscious thing. maybe because it's 11:00 at night. well i'm out.


david