by Mike Riley

The story is told of Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), who, as he played a challenging piece of music before a large audience, a string on his violin snapped — yet he continued to play, improvising beautifully. Then, without warning, two more strings broke, and he continued the composition playing with only one string.

When he completed the composition, the audience gave him a standing ovation. When the applause eventually stopped, he nodded at the conductor to begin the encore. The violinist smiled at the audience and shouted, “Paganini …. and one string!” Placing his instrument under his chin, he played again with that one string.

With the above thoughts in mind, Coach Lou Holtz once said, “The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.” Supporting his conviction with Scripture, we can note the response of Paul and Silas as they sat in prison stocks. Instead of bemoaning their lot, they made use of the “one string” they had left — they prayed and sang praises to God (Acts 16:25). As a result of their godly influence, the jailer and his entire household were baptized into Christ (Acts 16:33).

Are we allowing life’s adversities to discourage and immobilize us? With God’s help, let’s make the most of the “one string” we have left, and complete our spiritual composition (II Timothy 4:7; cf. Philippians 3:14; Hebrews 12:1).

As long as we keep in tune with Christ, we can sing even when all is dark (Acts 16:19-25).