Broken Strings

On my way home from work today, I turned on the radio just in time to hear the program "Joni and Friends." Below are some snippets of what I heard...

"Jack Reimer, a syndicated columnist, recently wrote a story about the great violinist Yitzhak Perlman. It seems Perlman had polio as a child and he walks with crutches and braces on both legs. Instead of arranging to be seated on stage at the beginning of his performance, he chooses to walk across the stage methodically and slowly until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, bends down and picks up the violin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play. As Reimer describes it, there is a certain majesty in this ritual.

Well, immediately after beginning a concert some years ago, everyone could hear a string snap on his violin. Perlman stopped and gazed at the broken string as the audience wondered what he would do. Then Yitzhak Perlman closed his eyes and after a moment he signaled the conductor to begin again.

Though anyone who knows music knows that it's impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings, Perlman was undaunted. Apparently, you could see this great artist recomposing the piece in his head and inventing new fingering positions to coax never before heard sounds from his three-string violin. The sophisticated New York audience watched and listened in awe knowing they were witnessing a truly extraordinary virtuoso performance. When the piece was over they exploded into appreciative applause. Mr. Perlman smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow and said in a soft, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

Wow! What a wonderful lesson. Whatever strings are broken in our lives, if we concentrate, if we apply what we know, we can still play beautiful music on what we have left. Oh sure, there's regret and heartache, but soon you learn that your life becomes a recomposition, a series of new chords. It is truly a process of "learning to be content," as the apostle Paul put it.

When God said in the Old Testament, "Look, I'm about to do something new" or when He had Jeremiah say, "I have plans for you, hopeful plans for a future"... when God said all that, I think He had in mind broken strings. With God orchestrating it all, it's got to be beautiful music, right?"
---Joni Erickson Tada