I’m a title person. I enjoy (and always have) coming up with a line, a couple of words, that both hopefully pique interest and also sits a reader back a minute, making them go ‘huh’.
So, yes, why ‘the Broken Mandolin?’ The reasons are several, some of which are for neither here nor now. I do happen to have a mandolin…you know, the wooden musical instrument. And no, it is not broken. I do have a broken violin…but that is not relevant to this blog.
‘I tell you,’ [Jesus] replied, ‘if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.’
Luke 19:40
Like I said, I have a Mandolin. I did not pay much for it….pretty sure it’s made in China (unlike what I was told when I bought it). It is exceptionally generic looking. I have not taken any Mandolin lessons, have actually picked out a song or two on it, “played” it at church once. Otherwise it sits in the corner. I hear a song that would sound amazing with a Mandolin accompanying it. I think to pick it up, look up some YouTube videos, call for lessons, learn some chords…just start. But I don’t.
Technically my Mandolin isn’t broken. But if it isn’t being used for what it was made for, neither is it ‘working.’ This blog came out of a thought….and I had ever-so-many reasons for not ever starting it. Or once I started it, for not publishing it. Or once I published it, for not sharing it and not keeping up with it. It’s so very easy to say ‘this isn’t a talent’ or ‘I don’t want others to think I am a show off’ so we simply never start. But if we were made to be a Mandolin, if we were given a voice, if we were given words, if we were given the gift of giving, if we were given the ability to teach, if we were given the gift of arts…shouldn’t we give them? Shouldn’t I work on learning the Mandolin?
If we do not allow ourselves to be used by God, then we are as good to others as a Broken Mandolin.
And as it says in Luke, if we keep from talking about our Jesus, if we are broken, the rocks themselves will be the instruments that we were supposed to be.
So……about learning to play that Mandolin….
