The Lamborghini of Guitars

I just experienced something amazing. 

An amazing friend just gave me the guitar of my dreams.  All my Christmases have come! 

So earlier this year we launched a little church in our home called Oikos. It has a simple goal of providing a safe place for people of no faith, people who are done with faith, and people who remain believers but are just not sure what kind of church they want or need. The shorthand for these folk are the ‘nons, the dones and the ums’ 

It’s a lovely, fun and informal group and it’s been a total privilege to spend time getting to know one another and experiencing trust and vulnerability deepen. We do hospitality and invite our people of peace and usually end up praying for one another – including any guests, which always goes down well. 

It’s not rocket science, but then I don’t think church was ever meant to be rocket science.  

In a recent gathering we got to sharing about how each of us are experiencing Gods restorative parenting and what attitudes and mindsets we wrestle with from our upbringing, the expectations and ideas we can so easily carry over into our relationship with God and with others. 

We got on to the notion of God wanting to give us good things and exploring how we felt about that. Someone quoted the verse in Psalm 37: 4  ‘Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.’

Someone expressed that some people know what the desires of their heart are and others find it hard to openly state their desires. 

We started stating our desires and I mentioned my long standing desire to own a genuine Les Paul guitar, something that has been beyond my budget over the years. I confessed to having periodically entered guitar prize draws to try and win one. We joked about it being the only thing on my Amazon wish list and how my family were frustrated by my total lack of affordable gift ideas. 

Vivian then shared that his desire was to give really special gifts, having recently experienced the joy it had brought to gift a fellow musician with a spare Saxaphone that he possessed. 

Then he said the most amazing thing; ‘what I’d really love to do is to win that guitar and to give it to you Phil’ 

I was blessed and quite stirred by his statement in that moment, but true to his word, he followed it up in the week by checking in with me which type of guitar it was that I was interested in as he was intent on purchasing a ticket. 

I was blessed again by his commitment to try, but then thought no more of it. 

On the following Wednesday they all met at our home and Julie let them in while I heated some mulled wine. We gathering in the kitchen for awhile and then I made our way into the lounge. 

I looked and saw a Guitar case lying open on the table with a Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty 3 pickup guitar inside, together with a certificate with words WINNER emblazoned across it. 

It is a thing of beauty. Top of the Les Paul range. The Lamborghini of guitars. 

I started examining it and I’m not sure what was going through my mind but I could not fully take it in when Viv declared ‘it’s yours Phil! – I won it!’.

The competition managers had rung Viv on Monday and told him he was the winner of the grand prize. They were blown away as Viv declared that his excitement and that it was in his plan to give it away! 

I was – and still am – in shock. 

My eyes leaked – the whole group watched and wept as it slowly dawned on me that Viv’s desire – and consequently my own, had been fulfilled!  

I have to say It’s a beautiful thing to receive an over the top generous gift (the instrument is worth over 6k and Viv is not rolling in money) but it’s doubly special when they go about it the way that Viv had.

He bought a ticket and prayed over it with full intention of giving away the prize should he win it. 

This is a life changing experience for me and I suspect also for Viv. Viv’s desire in entering the competition was to experience the joy of giving it to me. I have to observe that the purity of his intention is a challenge both to myself and apparently so to a number of my friends on social media. 

I am not a subscriber to prosperity teaching, the idea that if we only believe, we will be blessed with health, riches and all good things. It is a vulgar perversion of the gospel – taking the message of Gods unconditional love for us and turning it into a tool of manipulation, feeding into the consumer culture that seeks to consume and disciple us.  We need a faith that is more mature, more robust than anything prosperity teaching can provide. We know that suffering is a part of life and comes to everyone. But that doesn’t detract from the good things that God wants to do for and give to his children. Including you who are reading this. 

The experience is one that challenges us to trust God on new levels. 

Firstly to affirm that God is indeed the giver of all good gifts. Even to the degree of winning prize draws! He’s a good Father who wants us to experience rich generosity and the joy of being blessed to be a blessing. 

Secondly, I am in no way as some have suggested deserving of the gift. I am the undeserving object of love and friendship. 

It is for me a sign and a wonder. 

It is a sign of the underserved grace of the Father and evidence of his love in and through Vivian. Evidence that I can move forward in many areas of service with faith and trust in His ability and desire to provide through the most unexpected means. 

Finally, it is a call to pray and seek a richer manifestation of divine love in our own lives and in those who hear this story. My prayer is that we would all be encouraged to explore the joy of being generous givers, those who trust in the God who hears our prayers and answers them as a means of providing not only for our own needs but also for the needs and for the dreams of others. 

What might we pray this week, or what competition might we enter with intent to give the prize to another? 

We are the subjects of his outrageous grace.