the guitar lesson

"Let me explain something about guitar playing. Everyone's got their own character, and that's the thing that's amazed me about guitar playing since the day I first picked it up. Everyone's approach to what can come out of six strings is different from another person, but it's all valid." ~ Jimmy Page, guitarist of Led Zepplin

Have you ever taken lessons? Guitar or piano, or maybe something like sewing or cooking? Imagine a friend who pays for lessons every week. It's this nice old guitar teacher, he used to tour. A gentle guy who wants to pass on what he knows, I guess. It's a pay-what-you-can structure. Thing is, she just doesn't feel she's making any progress. She's not any more comfortable with playing guitar as when she began.

Maybe it's because she leaves her guitar in her teacher's studio every week, and never really brings it home. Never picks it up, except during her weekly lesson. It's obvious isn't it: she doesn't practice.

​Her guitar teacher tells her every week: Time and energy devoted to practicing, will increase your ability and confidence in playing. You have to listen too: as you listen to other great guitarists' styles, your ear becomes more refined and you begin to develop your own style and rhythm. You develop yourself as a guitar player and as a musician overall. You can do it, but you have to practice.

And... in this way, so is our faith. Every week we attend church for "lessons" in Christianity, Faith, the Gospel, Spirituality, Jesus' Way. Christ's teachings are the music in our hearts that we long to play. The good news is: we need only practice. With practice comes confidence in one's abilities to live a life of faith. Confidence in our ability to make the kinds of choices and lifestyle adjustments that align us more closely to where we want to be spiritually. The time and energy devoted to practicing increases our skill at connecting with each other and with the divine. The more you listen and share your faith practices with others, the more refined your spiritual ear becomes, and you begin to develop your own faith style and rhythm. You develop as a person of faith. You want to share your faith with your friends and join in a community of faith, a "band" of seekers. The world around you will be blessed by the melody of your faith in action.

How do we practice our faith? Do we practice our faith? How do we connect more deeply to God's music within? What is our accountability to ourselves to grow as musicians of our own personal faith, practicing our "instrument" each and every day, in every choice, in every breath? In harmony with our community and with God.

In music, practicing the basics is essential. We are all familiar with practicing scales. Remember do-re-mi-fa-sol? Note-by-note focusing our attention of how to move our fingers, control our breath, or keep a rhythm. These basics engage our bodies in learning how to connect and convey melody, harmony, chords and music.

So also in our faith: spiritual practices help us learn how to focus our attention on the will of God through meditation, and connecting to God through prayer, for example. The website The Contemplative Mind in Society is an great resource that I like visiting. Within the site, you'll find The Tree of Contemplative Practices (shown above) which suggests a variety of approaches to connecting to the core of our spirits. By connecting to our inner voice, God within us, we can better hear and harmonize with ourselves, our families, our communities and our worlds. We can also better recognize the discords of injustice. By working together, and with the well-developed ears of our faith, we can retune our lives and our worlds to become realigned with God's harmony for all.

Faith is the music that speaks through your heart. When you're feeling down AND when you're feeling great, playing music feels so right, doesn't it? Strumming a tune, playing a melody... so many songs that inspire us and connect us. And so it is with faith: when we're feeling down AND when we're feeling up, you just want to connect with God and the people you love, because our faith feels like the music that inspires and connects us. And you want to play your music so much and so well, so you will practice that guitar riff, or those piano chords, or that knitting stitch over and over again until you get it! In the same way, as Christians we want to follow the way of inclusive love, justice and peace so much... that we will practice "the riffs of the spirit" --forgiveness, and kindness, and generosity, and peacefulness, and justice-- over and over and over again, until we get it right!

The endless music of God's love is in your soul, your spirit is full of the resonance of God's strength, power and delight in your unique voice, your unique sound. Your entire life, you can draw upon your inner music which is your faith, as a source of connection, joy, comfort and sharing. And then you can write a song about it, and play along on your guitar. ~xo