These old rings

My poor wedding/engagement rings have been through a lot in the last 26 years. In the first few days of marriage, my new husband and I were playing football in the front yard, and my rings flew off when I threw a pass. We crawled around and pawed at the grass until we found them. 

About six years in, I was power-walking on a treadmill and banged my rings so hard on the rail that the diamond was knocked out of its setting. I searched for days, took the treadmill apart, turned off the lights and searched by flashlight, vacuumed the whole room and sifted through the vacuum bag, but I never found it. I was very sad, because I couldn't find another one like it.  We replaced it with a slightly bigger diamond, but I mourned the original. Here's the only picture I have of the original one:

About 15 years in, my wedding ring and engagement ring got divorced, for no apparent reason.

I had them re-soldered, and they remained happily married until they ran off together today.

I was at work, in the office preparing for my shift, and the District Manager appeared for a surprise visit to make sure everyone's following all the rules (one of which is: no jewelry).  I have butted heads with various bosses over the last year (I've had a ridiculous number of bosses come and go before the company finally hired a great one) regarding the "no jewelry" rule.  I don't wear earring, necklaces, bracelets, or gaudy rings.  The only thing I wear is my wedding ring, which I don't consider jewelry, but a covenant.  My current fantastic boss never says a thing about it.  I show up on time, do a good job, and he overlooks little things. 

But the DM does not, so as soon as he popped in, I slipped my covenant off and did a fancy little sleight of hand to distract him while I pocketed it in an insecure side pocket of my pants.  By the time I got home, it was gone. I called the office and my aforementioned fantastic boss scoured the whole place for it but didn't find it. 

I haven't totally given up on finding it, but I've lost enough hope to start making an alternate plan.  My great-grandma wanted me to have her wedding band, so she gave it to me decades ago.  I thought this would be a good time to get it sized to fit me.  

Update the next day:  My awesome boss just called me and said, "Guess what I'm holding in my hand?"  Apparently the custodial staff found it late last night when they were sweeping! Praise the Lord!

Electricity

Several weeks ago, I was praying and asking God to use me as a conduit of His love to those who need to know it.  I didn't like the sound of the word "conduit", so I nerdily looked up synonyms.  The thesaurus offered me even less appropriate options, such as "ditch" and "gutter".  I decided maybe "conduit" wasn't so bad after all, so I did some nerdy research on it and learned:

• It's a tube used to protect and route electricity. (Yes, Lord, use me to protect and route Your love.)

• Metal conduit can be used to shield sensitive circuits from electromagnetic interference. (Use me to shield sensitive people from demonic interference.)

• It can be rigid or flexible. (Make me rigid when I need to be and flexible when I need to be.)

• Conduit may be installed underground between buildings, structures, or devices to allow installation of power and communication cables.(Use me to connect You to people for the purpose of sharing your communication and power.)

And then yesterday, I was sitting at the piano, and God started writing a song about being grounded in Him. I knew He was talking about electrical grounding, and I had only a vague notion of this term, so I nerdily looked it up.  This is what I learned about grounding:

• If there is a problem with the wiring, grounding provides a direct pathway to the ground and prevent power surges that can invite electrical hazards.(God is my safe place.  I can connect to Him in times of trouble.)

• In an electric circuit, there is an active wire which supplies the power, a neutral wire which carries that current back, and a ‘grounding wire’ which provides an additional path for electrical current to return safely to the ground without causing danger to anyone. (He is both my power source and my place of safety.)

• Grounding protects against electrical overload. It makes it easier to distribute the right amount of power at the right places.  (He gives me all the power I need, but He won't overload me.)

• When you do not ground your electrical system, you put your appliances and even your life at high risk.  An excessive amount of electricity may damage your appliances or even start a fire, putting your property and the life of your loved ones at risk. (I want God's power to start a fire in me, but I trust Him to ground me also, so that I and those around me aren't damaged).

• To check if the electrical system is grounded or not, check that your system has three wires, one of which will be a grounding wire. (God is three in one: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.)

Then last night at my Agape class, one of my fellow students gave me this prophetic word:

He sees you like a dynamo that is slowly turning and increasing in speed and power. He sees you increasing the energy produced for the Kingdom to a point where it will outgrow your ability to contain it. It will then spill out of you. The increase in energy will enable you to produce more and more. It’s actually better than a perpetual motion machine in that it doesn’t just maintain, but increases. It may be an outpouring of Jn 14: 12-14. Are you ready for it? He will not overwhelm you, but it will be more than you can do on your own strength, to rely more on Him.

I had no clue what a dynamo is, so you know what I did.  I researched it.  And this is what I learned:

• When the coil is stationary, no voltage is induced. But when the coil is rotated it experiences a changing magnetic field. This induces a voltage within the coil. (I don't produce anything useful if I am stagnant.)

• The spinning coil of the dynamo is connected to the circuit that it powers using a commutator, which is permanently attached to one end of the rotating coil, and the commutator rotates with the coil. (I must be attached to God and move with Him to produce power.)

• The commutator performs another very important function. It keeps the dynamo's generated voltage from alternating between positive and negative. It ensures that the voltage produced by the dynamo is no longer fluctuating between positive and negative, but is instead always positive. (Yes!!)

So I asked the Lord, "Why are you speaking to me in electrical terms? You know I know nothing about electricity.” He said, “If I spoke to you in terms you were familiar with, you wouldn't look them up and experience the wonder of discovery, like the excitement of a child learning something for the first time.”

Then He and I got busy working on that song He'd started the day before.  Here's how it's going so far: 

I wanna be a dynamo for You
Make me Your dynamo
Set me afire, electrify me
Make me your dynamo

Spin me around; rotate in sync with me.
Electrify me with Your kingdom power
'til I can't contain it anymore

Radiate from me positive energy
Build up in me Your currency
Let's make electricity

But keep me grounded in You
Be my source and my shield
Be my steady rock, my constant flame
Lord, keep me grounded in You.

Click on this link to hear the melody: Dynamo

P.S.--I thought I was done with this post, but a connection was made in my brain at 4:00 a.m. this morning, so I have to add on a little bit and change the song slightly.  When we were worshipping Sunday night at class, I had a vision of a rock with flames on it but it wasn't being burned or even charred. I didn't know what it meant, but I kept seeing it.  I asked the Holy Spirit what it was, but I didn't hear anything, so I forgot about it until the wee hours of this morning when I realized He was showing me a visual of all that He was saying to me about being on fire but remaining grounded.  The fire represents His power and passion that I want to burn in me, and the rock represents His safety and stability that won't let the fire damage me or others around me.

Update on this old piano!

 I whined to my awesome husband about my stuck piano key, and he got right on it.  He methodically investigated every possibility, gradually taking off more parts of the piano until he figured it out and fixed it.  He was like an FAA crash investigator, and it was fun to watch.  We both learned a lot about the amazing inner workings of the piano.  What a simple, yet intricate instrument!  I have a whole new appreciation for it and for him. 

For those interested in the cause of the crash....the whole thing was my fault.  I picked up my big heavy water bottle while I was standing over the piano, and the handle of the bottle broke off in my hand.  The bottle dropped directly onto the G# key, broke it off, and sent it flying by my head and across the room , while water soaked down into the keys. I let an expletive fly and grabbed a towel and did my best to sop up the water I could see, but it was good that Mike took out that section of keys, because the wood underneath was still wet and would have gotten moldy.  So water had gotten into the tiny felt strips in the hole of the F# key, and the brick mashed the soggy felt into a lump that caused the key to stick.

This Old Piano

I wish this piano could talk. I'd love to hear the stories she could tell.  My dad's mom bought her when my dad was young, so he thinks she's at least 80 years old.  She was nice and new at the time.  Since then, she's been moved several times and abused in all kinds of ways.  Her keys are chipped,

her sound board is cracked,

she's out of tune and can't be tuned because of the cracked sound board, her front panel is broken from where Noah crashed his remote control monster truck into her years ago. 

 I had two estimates from professionals on what it would take to restore her. They both said I have two options: play her until she dies, or put thousands of dollars into her to fix her.  She's really not worth anything monetarily, because nobody wants old upright pianos anymore, but she is precious to me.  

My dad and my brother and I all learned to play on this piano.  I have spent countless hours playing her, by compulsion when I was a kid and from pure delight as an adult.  I have played lots of pianos, including good quality grand pianos, but this one has always been my favorite.  I've never played one that feels as good as mine.  The sound is wonderful (except that it's out of tune).  My fingers feel at home on her keys, while they feel like guests on any other keys.  

Today, I invited a few friends over to worship.  I was supposed to play the piano for this little party, and the devil didn't want that to happen, so half an hour before they were to arrive, my G# key broke off.  

I scrambled to get it glued back on and put a brick on it to stick it down and hopefully get dried in time.

Sure enough, it was perfectly fine, and I thought I won the battle, but no.  The devil had another trick up his sleeve.  The F# key, which is absolutely crucial to most of the songs I play, was stuck from being under the brick next to the broken key. I have to manually lift it up each time I want to play it, and then after I play it, it's stuck down again. 

 My poor piano is dying a slow, painful death, and I'm in mourning.