This is a true story that just happened to me.
Recently, I met an older man in Maryland at one of the services I was speaking. This man met me after service and told me he was a Mandolin player. He began to tell me his testimony and his lifelong struggle with alcohol addiction. At one point he felt like he had finally overcome it and was on the road to recovery. In that time period his mind was sharp again and God began to restore his creativity. He decided to build from scratch his own mandolin. As you can well imagine it was very tedious and time consuming. However, he loved the process and enjoyed the peace. After months of working on this piece of art, the body was painted with just a clear coat and his plan was to begin on the neck. Unfortunately in the middle of of this, he fell back to his old ways of drinking.
Going back to drinking brought more destruction and broken relationships. He left that Mandolin in the basement half finished.
For months he would walk down in that basement and see that unfinished project and it would remind him of his failure. It became a symbol of the his unfulfilled life. His life had potential, there was beauty but mostly it laid broken, bare and unfinished.
What he didn't see was the process. He didn't notice that he left that mandolin by the only window in the basement. He didn't see the light that would shine down on it. He didn't see how that light never stopped shinning, never left. He didn't see how the light continued to cure and bake that clear coat paint. One day after months of not even going to see his mandolin, in a broken, depressed and humbled state. He made his way to the basement. He saw his work and at first it made him angry and bitter at himself for his poor choices. At that moment in the middle of a self hatred rant, through the tears in his eyes, he noticed something different. He noticed that the months of being in that ray of sun had changed the color of that clear coat to a beautiful new shade that he could never have dreamt. He saw the shade of beauty that only God could create. He saw the hand of God!
He fell to his knees and cried out to his Father. You just never give up do you? Even with his poor choices God never gave up. God still loved him. There was still a ray of hope. A ray of SON shine!A ray of SON shine that could penetrate the darkness. Penetrate the lies of the accuser that would have him believe he was a hopeless drunk. He was not a hopeless addict, he was and always would be a child of the most high God. He was a piece of art that the master had never quit working on. He had never quit believing in. Mostly God had never quit loving!
The man put his drink down and God completely healed and restored him. He finished that mandolin and plays it still today. He plays it in church on the worship team. He noticed that not only did the sun change its color, it changed its sound. He says its been "Sun-cured".
I just wanted to take a minute and write to everyone that has ever been or are going through a failure. I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that it is not over. God is not mad at you, he still has a plan for you. He has never and will never leave you alone. He will continue to pour out his love on you. He desires to penetrate through the darkness and push back the idea that you are a mistake. You are not a failure! You are not your addiction! You are not your choices even. You are a child of the most high God and He wants you to hear the truth. He wants you SON-Cured! All you need to do is just lean back to Him and you will find His ever forgiving presence. His ever restorative nature. You are His handy work and above all else He wants to see you finish the race that He created you for! Don't allow the lies of the enemy to keep you bound up! Stop seeing yourself as a disaster.
You are His instrument and He is your Master!
