He's Still Toolin' on Me

I have the privilege of meeting with a group of godly men every Tuesday morning for the purpose of discipleship. We study the word together and we encourage and challenge each other to be the men of God we know He wants us to be.

We are currently working our way (at a snails pace) through the book of Philippians. We recently got to the verse in chapter one in which Paul says: "I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. (Philippians 1:19 NIV)

In the process of studying this passage I was taken by two simple words "turn out."

They took me back to something that happened this past thanksgiving at my parent's home in Corpus Christi. Most of you know that I love guitars, I like playing them, I like looking at them, I just like guitars. Well my dad has this old 80's Ventura acoustic that has been around our house for years. It's dusty and the strings are tarnished and dead. So, I thought about it and brought a new set of strings with me when we went to visit them for the holiday.  I removed the old strings and polished the guitar up a bit and reconditioned the fret board. It looked great. Then I replaced the strings and it was at that time I realized that there was no button on the bottom of the guitar to attach a strap. These buttons are usually made of plastic (on cheaper guitars) or bone (on some expensive models). But they can be made of wood as well.

I asked my dad if we could make one together. I know he loves projects so off to the garage we went. My dad reached over and got an old shop broom and proceeded to cut  about six inches off the handle. He then took me to the back of the shop and there he has a small lathe.

He stationed this wood stock in the chuck that spins the material and then turned the lathe on. He showed me how to manipulate the cutting tools using large dials. He got the piece started and established the basic shape and then stepped out of the way and allowed me to finish it. In the end it would be shaped like a tiny light bulb except that the stem was tapered so it would wedge securely into the hole at the bottom of the guitar.

I love my dad and I love doing anything that we get to do together. I would rather scoop poop after an elephant parade with my dad than play golf with most people. (of course that could be because I stink at golf). But, to get to create something together, something that is useful...and it goes on a guitar? That's just sweet.

You know they call this process "turning." And my dad, who was a machinist by trade for many years has "turned out" thousands of one of a kind parts that were needed to keep American Smelting and Refining in business during his forty years with that company.

I just had the recurring thought, as I was studying the Apostle Paul's phrase: "this will turn out for my deliverance" that the masterful creator of the universe has his hands on the dials. He is working all things to "turn out" for my good. He is even tooling on me so that I may "turn out" to be a reasonable facsimile of his precious Son. I am happy to be the rough stock from which He turns out a masterpiece called a Christian life.