4 posts tagged “guitar”

Well, I'm about halfway through my trip.  Right now, I'm with some friends in Jackson, MS and will be here until Wednesday morning when I leave for French Camp Academy in French Camp, MS.  So far, my trip has been WELL worth it on so many levels.  Mainly on the heart level.  I've had the opportunity of connecting with several friends along the way and I'm so, so grateful for the gifts of those meetings.  I've also had several opportunities to sing as well.  In St. Louis, I gave a house concert which turned out to be such a sweet time of fellowship with everyone who came.  From there, I drove to Oklahoma City for a few days and had the chance to lead worship and share my testimony at Living Waters (First Stone Ministries).  Then on Friday, I made the ridiculously long trek from OKC to Jackson, MS.  As a Northeast girl, I forget how far apart the cities are out here!! 

On Saturday, I was given the chance to play down in Gautier, MS (pronounced "go-shay") at a ministry called Home of Grace for Women.  It's a recovery program for women struggling with drug and alcohol addictions.  I was unprepared for how that evening would minister to my own soul.  One of the things that the Lord has been dealing with me about recently, is my need to present a well-put-together-Mindy in ministry.  Even when Mindy is not put together at all.  Even when the reality is that she is falling apart.  How does one reconcile the call to minister, and the need to be ministered to at the same time?  I'm still trying to figure it out, but I'm overwhelmed by the Lord's compassion for me to give me a space while ministering at Home of Grace to just "be" where I was.  To just be honest.  To just be real.  I needed that.  And I think they did, too. 

I got home pretty late from that concert, and when I pulled into the driveway of my friends' house, a friendly stray dog came up to my car to greet me.  He'd been hanging around there all weekend, so it wasn't the first time I had seen him.  I realized that I had a left-over sandwich in my car and instead of letting it stink up the car, I decided to feed it to the dog.  (Everyone was in bed, so I figured no one would know that I was feeding the stray dog.  Sneaky, I know).  So I fed him the sandwich and then proceeded to unload my car.  I took the guitar out and placed it on the driveway next to the car, then I leaned back in to grab my backpack.  As I stood up, I turned around just in time to watch Mr. Stray Husky Dog vomit the sandwich all over my guitar case.  Did I mention that it was late and I was tired?  I basically just stood there and stared at it for a few moments thinking, "You have got to be kidding me."  However, I have to admit that I was surprisingly very calm in that moment.  I just took the guitar over to the door of the house,  grabbed some paper towels, and cleaned up the mess in a very "this-is-a-normal-event" sort of way.  I will say this, though, that is the last time I feed anything to a stray dog ever again.

Last night, I gave a concert at Lakeland Presbyterian Church here in Jackson (but that was only after I got eaten alive by a bunch of red fire ants!!!  Not fun.  Not fun at all).  This is my third year of visiting and ministering at this congregation, and each year I am deeply encouraged by their generosity and support of my ministry.  Tomorrow I'll be at Mt. Salus Christian School for their chapel and then Wednesday I leave for French Camp...but I already told you that. :)

TODAY, however, is my day off this week.  It is raining, and it is beautiful.  All morning, I've been staring at the rain clouds rolling in across the sky, and I am convinced that they were just for me!   I've been reading and thinking about Psalm 18 a lot recently and those clouds were just the picture that I needed.

Take a moment and read it for youself. 

This week I'm playing the "Let's-see-how-much-I-can-fit-into-one-week" Game, so I've been dying to post this sooner, but it has been absolutely nuts around here.  Anyway, if you haven't read my previous post about what happened to my guitar this week, then you should go ahead and do that now before reading further.  It will help you with the significance of this post.

So, as you guys know, I was rehearsing on Wednesday night for a conference that I'm leading worship for this weekend, when I discovered the hole in the back of my guitar.  Completely distraught, I gently placed the guitar on the floor in front of me and stared at it for a while in the fetal position.  Then I came home and immediately began blogging, posting, emailing, calling and texting people about it.  So much drama!   The next morning, I woke up and checked my email, blog, posts, phone, etc. for any responses about the "tragedy" and continued to stress over it.  Later that morning, I was scheduled to have breakfast with a friend of mine from church, so I got in my car and headed over to the bagel shop where we planned to meet.  It's only about 5-7 minutes from my apartment, but as I was driving, I decided to turn off the radio and when I did, immediately the Lord said, "Uh, Mindy?  Hello.  Talk to Me."  And at that moment, I realized that I had never even once mentioned this situation to the Lord.  So, after confessing my utter self-sufficiency to Him, I proceeded to say, "Lord, You have given this guitar to me, and You know that in the ministry that You have called me to at this point, I need a guitar.  I don't know what's going to happen with mine, but I'm going to trust You with it, and believe that You want to take care of me."

Two minutes later, I arrived at the bagel shop and my friend asked me how my day was going.  "WELL!  Let me just tell you!"  So I pulled out my computer and proceeded to tell her about the guitar and show her pictures.  As I was doing that, I noticed that I had a private message in my inbox from Indieheaven.  It was from another artist that I met last weekend in Nashville at the Indieheaven conference.  She had read the message that I'd posted on the IH message boards and sent me this:

I have a Martin D16 Special Edition, and God has been leaning HARD on me to give it away. I have been reluctant until now.
Mindy...It's yours...just tell me where to ship it.
It needs a pick up, but it's a great guitar.
I love you, girl, and I am so sorry about your guitar.
Autumn

At this point, tears are streaming down my face because I am blown away by the fact that God, being so tender and so attentive, would care that much to answer me so personally...and quickly...and that He even heard me in the first place!!  I imagined that He had a big grin on His face as He watched it all unfold.  But then, He already knew how it
would unfold years ago.  He knew I would have this need and even THEN began stirring the idea in Autumn's heart
that she would give this guitar away.  Here's the catch though: I have a hard time with the whole receiveing thing.  I know there's a TON that's connected to that on so many different levels, and it's something that God has been dealing with me about for a long time now...and apparently, continues to do so.  So, I called her and we talked at length about what God was doing, and both agreed that it came down to simply being obedient.  She was being obedient to give it, and I am having to be obedient to receive it.

I took my guitar up to the Martin factory that afternoon and had them look at it.  Unfortunately, to have it restored back to it's previous condition would cost more than the guitar is worth.  But he told me that he could fix it to make it playable, but that would cost money as well, so he was gonna tell me how I could fix it myself and save myself some money.  "Take some glue..." :::cringe::: "...and squeeze it in here, then wipe off the excess, put a clamp on the guitar and let it dry for a couple days."  :::sigh:::  When I asked him about the hole, he said, "Well there's nothing you can do about that.  They've got brown duct tape now!  You can just cover it with that and paint a little black strip on it if you like."  :::SIGH:::  It was painful to hear.  However, my first thought was, "I need to tell Autumn that it's fixable...that I can still play it...that I don't really NEED the guitar now!"   But as I spoke with her, it was clear that God was saying, "Mindy, I want you to have this guitar.  I want you to be obedient." 

Isn't that just like me to say, "But wait a second, God...look, I can fix my brokenness.  I can cover it up and it'll look just fine.  No one will even know."  But the brokenness is still there, and so He instead says, "Mindy, I want to make you brand new.  I want to give you a new life that will completely replace the old.  Take it, Mindy.  It's yours."

I'm floored by God's tenderness toward me, but I'm so thankful.  I'm thankful that He heard me, and cared.  I'm thankful that Autumn heard Him and obeyed.  I'm thankful that I am hearing Him and learning.  Learning to trust.  Learning to receive.  Learning to just simply obey.

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So of course, I'm going to be taking this opportunity to plug Autumn Calvert and her music!!!!!  This woman is the real deal!!!  I love reading her posts on IH because she is just genuine to the core...and her music is testimony to that!  So, if you have a couple minutes, swing by her Indieheaven page and check her out! 

Tonight I was practicing with some friends when I heard what sounded like a pick moving around inside my guitar.  Nothing weird about that.  I lose picks there all the time.  So started trying to fish it out and when I finally got it, I realized that I wasn't a pick at all.  In fact, it was a small piece of wood...which had me puzzled and slightly concerned being that my beloved Martin DCME guitar is made of wood.  So I looked inside and flipped it around and began examining it when I saw this.....

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I have been racking my brain all night trying to figure out how and when this could have happened because I've been sick and have had no voice for the past two weeks, so I've barely had it out at all.  It absolutely makes me sick in my stomach!  But it's just a material possession, right?   I mean, I'm not taking it with me when I die...hmmm, that leads me to an interesting thought that I never had before:  I wonder what the guitars sound like in Heaven?!?!  I bet they're reeeeeal nice! Oooo, now that's gonna be fun, don't ya think, GP?  :)