THE UNWILLING GUITAR

THE UNWILLING GUITAR

When I was doing my novitiate this particular story was told in the goodnight about a Guitar who was unwilling to be tuned and polished. As I was learning guitar I was taken up by this story and it has a huge impact in my life.  So I would like to share it with you because we are in one way or the other in a formation whether as a religious or as a lay people. So here I begin... 


Once upon a time there were 5 new brand Guitars. They were well tuned and were of the top brand. Their cost was high and were beautiful in their appearances. They were bought and taken by the popular band and they did sound great whenever they were being played. Everyday the guitarist cleaned, polished and tuned them before the practice or before the performance. This tuning was done daily and the guitars found it really difficult to bear it up. Anyway they had to allow the guitarist to do so in order to sound well and to be famous among the audience. 

But as the days passed by one of the guitars did not like the guitarist much due to the tuning process. It was very painful and tough for it to bear. It's whole body was being rubbed and polished. So this guitar decided to escape from this tuning business. So one day as the great occasion  came for the guitarist to perform in front of the huge crowd this guitar decided to hid itself before the tuning session began. 


As usual the guitarist came to tune the guitars but to his astonishment he could not find one of the guitars.He frantically searched for it but  could not find it. Anyway he tuned the four guitars and went. No sooner the guitarist left the place the hidden guitar came out of it's hiding place and jumped around merrily and began to mock the other guitars telling and showing their expressions when they were tuned. Anyway it was very happy. But when the time came for the performance the guitarist came and picked up the guitars and strummed it, all sounded great except the one which hid itself from the tuning session. So the guitarist left that guitar in the corner of the room and walked away with the other four. They sounded great and all people applauded for them. Again and again those four guitars were strummed and people asked for one more. When the performance was over these four guitars came back to the room with joy and happiness. They were appreciating each other for their show, whereas the left out guitar was feeling miserable. He had nothing to say except to regret his mistake of not allowing itself to be tuned though it was painful and tough. 

Dear friends this story seems simple and funny but it has got a great lesson. As humans no one likes to be corrected and no one likes to go through a difficult and painful process. Even I do not like to be corrected every now and then and so are you. But the lesson we get from the above story is that one has to humble oneself in order to learn something. There is joy after every birth pang. There is success after every failure, and every bitter and painful experience carries a lesson that we need to learn.


So let's ask ourselves today, do we behave like that guitar who was unwilling to be tuned? Do we escape the painful and tough experiences in our life? If so, we will also be left like that guitar in that miserable condition. 


Let's be open to the corrections and piece of advice that we get form our Superiors, parents, friends and juniors.Remember friends, in order to have a beautiful rose blooming in your garden we need to prune it and  if we want to get good harvest we need to prune and cut the unnecessary elements form the plant, then only we will get good harvest. So it is in our lives we need to be pruned and corrected so that we may also bear good and abundance food. 


-He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 
(Jn 15:2)