Never Let Go of Your Talents

I often get asked, “How long have you been playing guitar?” Truth is, I’m not sure exactly. It all started when my sister got the first guitar in the house. It was a junior sized Oscar Schmidt (by Washburn) acoustic guitar.  I don’t think I really even wanted to play guitar, I just got curious as to how it worked. Lauren, my sister, showed me the tabs of guitar chords and I just started playing around with it. It wasn’t long before I started learning more chords and I found myself enjoying taking the time to learn new techniques. I was currently playing the trumpet in middle school, so I had a good understanding of time and tempo of music, so I already knew how to keep time.  Counting back to sometime around that moment, I believe this to be around 11+ years ago, but I wouldn’t say I’ve been playing that long, since I wasn’t always playing guitar throughout that time period.

After learning that I really enjoyed playing guitar, I got my first guitar, a Fender Squier electric guitar. I started learning songs by ear and picked up some electric guitar techniques. I began playing in our youth band at church and became comfortable with playing rhythm guitar.  I grew fond of the Les Paul body style of guitars, so for Christmas one year I received an Epiphone Les Paul. I played with that guitar for a while, until we no longer had the youth band at church, and it wasn’t long until I stopped playing guitar for a good while.

Maybe a year or so later, we began attending Mt. Pleasant. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but my dad began talking with Brad and mentioned that I played guitar, and it wasn’t long before I found myself auditioning to be on the Praise Team. It was at that time I noticed how much of the guitar information I had learned, was lost in all the time I spent not playing. There were many times that I found myself having to re-learn things that I had previously known, even some chords and where they were on the fretboard. When I think about this today, I’m not sure I would even be playing guitar had my dad not said anything.

So, I say all of this to say, never let go of the talents you have. Find something that God will allow you to use those talents for his glory. Don’t let them go to waste, keep them active.
 
Jordan