00:01The idea for this talk came from something I saw this morning on LinkedIn, of all places.
00:08It was a commencement speech given by Eric Church called The Six Strings of Life.
00:14And I thought it was beautiful, and I thought, hey, wait a minute.
00:17Let me write something around this and share it with the community.
00:21You know, and basically the main point is that a life only becomes beautiful
00:26when the most important parts of it are kept in tune.
00:30A guitar can have the right shape, the right wood, and the right shine.
00:36But if the strings are loose, broken, or missing, it cannot make the music it was created to make.
00:44And a person can be the exact same way.
00:48You can look successful, stay busy, make money, build a name, and keep moving forward.
00:56But if your faith is weak, your relationships are neglected, your love has grown cold,
01:04your ambition has lost its purpose, your resilience is wearing thin, your community is missing,
01:13or your God-given voice has been silenced, your life will not sound the way God meant it to sound.
01:22And that's what this message is basically about.
01:26You see, God did not create you to live as a polished instrument with no music inside.
01:33He created you with strings that matter.
01:37When loose strings are in tune, your life becomes more than busy.
01:43It becomes meaningful.
01:45It becomes steady.
01:47It becomes useful in God's hands.
01:51Now, there comes a point in life when you realize you can have movement without music.
01:58You can be busy and still feel empty.
02:02You can be surrounded by people and still feel alone.
02:06You can chase success, build something, prove something, accomplish a lot,
02:14and still feel like something inside you is out of tune.
02:18And that's because your life is not only measured by what you get done.
02:23Your life is shaped by what you stay connected to.
02:29Now, the first string is faith.
02:33Faith is not just something you talk about when life is easy.
02:37Faith is the string that holds when everything else shakes.
02:42It's the quiet place inside you that says,
02:46God is still here, even when I do not understand what he is doing.
02:54Faith does not mean you never hurt or never question.
02:58Real faith is often born in the place where you have every reason to give up.
03:05But something in you still whispers,
03:08Lord, help me take one more step.
03:14You know, a life without faith becomes heavy fast.
03:18You start thinking everything depends just on you,
03:22your strength, your timing, your control, your ability to fix it.
03:28That pressure can wear a person down.
03:30But when faith is in tune,
03:32you remember that you are not the source of your own life.
03:37You are held by the one who saw you before the world ever knew your name.
03:43Now, the second string, one of my favorites, family.
03:50You see, for some people, that word brings warmth.
03:54But for others, it brings pain.
03:58Family is not always perfect, and it's not.
04:01You know, sometimes family is not even what it should have been.
04:06But God still places a deep need in the human heart to belong somewhere.
04:13You were not created only to produce, achieve, and survive.
04:18You were created to love and to be loved.
04:23If your family story is painful,
04:27God is not finished writing your story of belonging.
04:31He can bring spiritual family.
04:34He can bring friendships that feel like shelter.
04:38He can heal what people broke.
04:40He can teach you how to build a home inside your life
04:45that does not repeat the damage you survived.
04:50Now, the third string, well, it's love.
04:55Not shallow love.
04:57Not love that only works when everything feels easy.
05:00I mean the love that strengthens you.
05:03The love that sees you clearly and still stays.
05:08The love that does not make you smaller.
05:11It calls out the best in you without crushing what is tender.
05:17And some people spend their lives chasing applause
05:20and miss the person who truly cares.
05:26Some people keep trying to impress strangers
05:28while neglecting the ones who pray for them
05:31when no one is watching.
05:34That is a painful way to live.
05:37Love is one of God's great gifts
05:40because it reminds us that life is not meant to be lived
05:44as a solo performance.
05:46Even Adam, before sin entered the world,
05:51heard God say it was not good for man to be alone.
05:57Now, the fourth string is ambition.
06:01And some people think ambition is unspiritual,
06:04but that is not true.
06:07Selfish ambition can become dangerous,
06:10but God-given ambition, well, that's different.
06:14It's the holy pole inside you that says,
06:18I was made to do something with what God gave me.
06:23It's the desire to grow, build, create, lead,
06:28and become faithful with all your gifts.
06:33Now, the problem comes when ambition
06:36loses its connection to God.
06:38Then it becomes restless and relentless.
06:41It becomes hungry in a way that never gets full.
06:46You achieve one thing and immediately feel behind again.
06:51But when ambition is surrendered to God,
06:55it becomes purpose.
06:57You stop needing every room to clap for you.
07:00You begin to understand that success is not just being seen.
07:05Success is being faithful.
07:08Now, the fifth string is resilience.
07:12And life will hit you.
07:15There will be disappointments you did not expect.
07:18There will be prayers that seem delayed.
07:21There will be people who misunderstand you.
07:26There will be seasons where you wonder
07:29how much more you can take.
07:32But resilience is not pretending that it does not hurt.
07:37Resilience is letting God meet you in the hurt
07:40without letting the hurt become your master.
07:43It is getting back up with tears still on your face.
07:47It's learning that one hard season
07:51does not get to define your whole life.
07:55It is discovering that God can use what tried to break you
07:59to build something deeper within you.
08:02Now, some of the strongest people are not loud.
08:07They are the people who keep trusting God
08:10after life gave them reasons not to.
08:13They still choose kindness after betrayal.
08:16They still choose prayer after silence.
08:20They still choose hope after loss.
08:23Now, if that is you,
08:26do not despise the strength God has been forming in secret.
08:31Heaven has seen every step you took
08:35when no one else knew how heavy it was.
08:39Now, the sixth string is your voice.
08:42And this may be the one the world tries hardest to touch.
08:47The world will pressure you to copy what works,
08:52say what gets attention,
08:55hide what makes you different,
08:56and quiet the part of you that carries conviction.
09:00But God, well,
09:03God did not make you to be a duplicate.
09:05He gave you a voice that carries your story,
09:10your scars,
09:11your faith,
09:13your lessons,
09:15your compassion,
09:16and your calling.
09:19Do not hand that voice over to fear.
09:23Do not let criticism tune your life.
09:26Do not let comparison steal your sound.
09:31Do not let bitterness decide what comes out of you,
09:35because your voice is not only what you say.
09:39It's how you live.
09:41It's the way you love,
09:43forgive,
09:44work,
09:45endure,
09:46create,
09:47and stand for what is right.
09:50Someone needs the sound God has placed within you.
09:56So, take care of your strings.
10:00When your faith grows quiet,
10:02come back to prayer.
10:03When your relationships feel neglected,
10:07love people while you have the chance.
10:10When your pain starts shaping your personality,
10:14bring it to Jesus before it hardens into something you
10:18were never meant to become.
10:22God is still tuning you,
10:25and that's why some seasons feel stretched.
10:28That's why some doors have not opened yet.
10:32That's why some parts of you are being healed,
10:36softened,
10:37and strengthened.
10:38You are not ruined because one string has been out of tune.
10:43You are not too late because your life is not sounded the way you hoped it would.
10:59So, let him tune your heart again.
11:02Let faith rise again.
11:05Let love matter again.
11:08Let purpose breathe,
11:10and let your voice come back.
11:13And when God begins to play through a life that is surrendered to him,
11:19even the pain can become music.
11:24My name is Douglas Vandergraaf,
11:27and I believe in Jesus Christ.
11:30God bless every single one of you.
11:34Every single one.
11:37Bye-bye.
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