Fulfilled Dreams…

(About a six min read… or watch the reel… it’s faster… )

It’s always been my passion… I began playing guitar when I was 14 years old… I took a semester of a very rudimentary intro-to-guitar class in middle school… I loved it from the start…

I was raised in the projects and didn’t have the resources to buy an instrument… my aunt sent me a small 3/4 size guitar… the strings were green with wear… the body was cracked and the neck was warped… but I loved it…

I would spend hours listening to cassette tapes I purchased by Steven Curtis Chapman and Phil Keaggy… I saved everything I had to buy them and I wore them out in about a month… but I taught myself every song by listening and trying what I heard…

The church I attended was my escape… they had just hired a new pastor from England… he was awesome… he would play Beatles songs reworded with Christian lyrics… I admired him…

I chose church as a sanctuary and escape from my stressful and abusive home life… my dad was a narcissist… I would stop after school and play guitar with pastor John… it was a highlight and I was always amazed at his patience and willingness to spend time with me…

One day I came into the church… pastor John asked me to come into the sanctuary… the room was dark but, there was a guitar on the stage… under a spot light… it was a very bright red… and a VERY “country” looking guitar… inlaid mother of pearl up and down the fretboard with a custom scripted pick guard… Pastor John said, “do you like it?” I said “yeah, that’s nice!”… he replied “well, it’s yours!”… and that was the beginning… I named it Roy because it looked like something Roy Rogers would have played…

I moved to Wisconsin with my family when I turned 16… I got very good at finger style guitar very quickly… I attended another church there and was asked to lead youth worship… the youth pastor at that time, Pastor Todd, gave me his guitar and said, “I’m certain that you’ll use this more than me.”… I was blown away… and incredibly thankful… Everyone saw my hunger and potential… I was just doing what I loved…

I met my late wife in the church youth group… and we got married at 21… she immediately started to call my guitar my “mistress” because I would spend hours a day perfecting my skills and escaping reality… in her mind there wasn’t a paycheck in music… and she made it very clear how she felt about it…

It wasn’t long before her jealousy was projected onto my instrument… quite literally… one night after a violent argument… she grabbed my “mistress” and smashed over my head… I heard the warped Em11 chord ring out and then I blacked out…

I woke up to the pain of a 3” sliver in my neck where the guitar had split… honestly, it made me cry some deep man-tears… i salvaged what I could… it was completely destroyed… irreparable… she even found wire cutters to cut the strings… I removed the tuners and strap locks and saved them in a ziplock for 18 years…

I went through 5 guitars over the next few years… they all met the same end and after about $7000 later decided to buy cheap guitars… because I knew how it would end… at least it was something to keep the fire burning…

When I was in my mid 20’s I got a job at a bow and arrow company called Matthew’s… I wound bow strings… the owner Mathew McPherson began developing a new guitar called McPherson guitars… I played very well and they would ask me to come try out their newest prototypes on my breaks… I fell in love… but the high cost wasn’t worth the risk… I knew how it would end…

Life continued and since that season every guitar has paled in comparison to McPherson… it’s always been a fantasy… but never a reality… like wanting a Maserati but settling for a Chrysler minivan… there would always be something more important than a guitar… but in reality I had been conditioned to tolerate and prepare for loss…

Life moved on… and a decade later my late wife passed away… I went to bible school… met my current wife and the Lord kept giving me favor in music… I slowly began leaving the hurt, abuse and loss behind me… and began finding my love for music again…

I bought a Martin guitar… it cracked due to my lack of understanding on how altitude effects wood… It seemed like I could never win… but I’d learned to play on a beater-guitar and did the best with what I had…

McPherson came out with a carbon fiber guitar… I was so excited… because they aren’t affected by the elements… however, I still felt hesitation… there were too many things in life that were more important… family… a second car… 7 kids… so on and so forth… so I continued to put them first and hung my dream back in the closet…

About 2 weeks ago I was getting winter tires at the tire shop… I took the time to spend talking with the Father… I said “God… I’m thankful for what I have, however, there are things Katrina and I are going to need if we’re going to be able to accomplish what you want us to do…” I heard Him say “Go to that guitar website…” so I did… He said “look up McPherson…” I hesitated… He said it again “look up McPherson…” so I did… the first item on the website was a carbon fiber Honeycomb McPherson guitar… I started tearing up… I heard the Lord say “buy it”… I couldn’t… it wasn’t practical and I couldn’t afford it… the Lord said “Michael… you asked me… and this is my response… why won’t you receive what I have for you…?” So… after a huge one-day sale discount and a year of no interest financing… I said “ok”… two days later it arrived at my door… it was a day I never thought would happen…

It was always the Fathers heart to provide what I needed… and wanted… He’s a good good Father… but it took time for me to see myself as worthy of being blessed… and prosperous… this isn’t a post about getting stuff… it’s about trusting God and allowing Him to live us… for me, there was a lifetime of hurt that released to that one action… God restored what the enemy had stolen…

Thank you for reading this all the way through… I hope it encouraged you.

Michael