My electric guitar is important to me. That statement is a paradox. I don't even own a guitar right now. This hurts me deep down inside.
I started playing guitar in my church's worship band about 7 years ago. Previously, I had taken lessons with the worship leader, so he asked me to play. At that time, depression and loneliness were normal in my life. Playing my guitar became a cathartic release. It allowed me to explore parts of worship and parts of my relationship with God I had never considered.
There is a lot of beauty in corporate worship. I joined a small community of people who led the congregation in worship. I became transfixed in worship while playing my guitar. Every once in awhile you could see people's lives changed by what God was doing. It was a beautiful experience.
I recently moved to a new city. Now, I'm not regularly playing in a worship band. I'm not regularly mesmerized by worship. I'm mostly bored with worship. It's been about 4 months since I've played my guitar in earnest. It takes a toll on me. I haven't been doing what God called me to do.
My guitar is important because not only is it an act of worship, it is a discipline. I don't yearn to play my guitar in order to worship God. I yearn to play my guitar because it enables me to worship God more fully. This is what I'm striving for - holistic worship. Worshiping God outside of corporate worship is harder when I don't worship him within the bounds of the community.
Whatever it is that you do that enables you to worship God - strive for those things. God has put a guitar in my hand because it helps me (and I like to think it helps others) worship. This is why my guitar is important to me and this is why I need to go pick it up and play.
Travis Goodspeed was a Junior Religion major at Wright State University in Fairborn, OH. He has a passion to reach people through music. This passion was acted upon in 2007 when he joined the worship band at his home church. Travis is excited to a part of this online community and can't wait to share some of his thoughts, comments, and dreams about worship.