Platinum Tuba

When I was in High School I went through an equipment phase. No matter what I did whether it was playing the guitar, pole vaulting, or brushing my teeth, I needed to have the best, most expensive equipment. At the time I didn't understand why, and I didn't care to know why, I just wanted to have the best. Keeping in mind that I grew up in a middle class family and had parents that were pretty much minimalists, the whole expensive and best quality thing didn't sit well with them. In fact, it used to really tick off my dad.

After crying to my father time after time in an attempt to get him to purchase a $700 guitar for me because it's what I really needed to play well, he went through the litany of all the things I had purchased or begged for and how they sat and collected dust, which really didn't phase me. I remember this one sentence that he actually screamed at me, "RICHARD, IF YOU PLAYED THE DAMN TUBA, YOU'D WANT ONE MADE OUT OF PLATINUM!"

I think this was meant to shame me. But at 17 years old, I thought to myself, "a platinum tuba? cool!"

Now, at 41 years old, I understand why I wanted the best equipment. It was because of my own shortcomings, or how I perceived my own shortcomings. I didn't put a lot of weight in my own skill or ability, and in my heart never thought I'd be much of a guitar player or a very good pole vaulter, but I persuaded myself that if I had a Gibson Les Paul that cost $700, or if I had the brand new, laboratory made pole vaulting shoes, these would elevate me to a level that I couldn't get to by myself.

Now I find myself serving a parish that meets in the chapel of an old mortuary (no longer functioning as a mortuary). We meagerly get by financially but God is rocking and blessing our church. If we were to have a $3 million building, state of the art music equipment, and thousands of dollars of church wares like chasubles and expensive chalices and things, God's blessing wouldn't be much different. In fact, I don't believe it would be different at all. We have the most essential thing: we have faith in the God that we worship, and he is blessing us. Eventually we will have all those things.

I no longer want a platinum tuba. I am very content playing the one that is a little tarnished and well dented.

This was actually a blog challenge from Cody and Carsten. As soon as I heard they were challenging me to write on platinum tuba, I smiled. I thank God for having a father that has said some of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my life. Who would have ever thought his platinum tuba analogy would come in handy?

I wish I would have known as a teenager that it's God that equips and that more emphasis on diligence and practice would help a lot more than a closet full of equipment.

GO BIG OR GO HOME!!