I got blisters on my fingers

I had a conversation yesterday during which a friend suggested that practising the Christian life was like practising the guitar; when you first start it hurts, but as you keep practising it comes more and more easily. This has inspired me to pick up my guitar again and pound away at those bar chords, which still sound awful. The difficulty is keeping going through all the awfulness until something beautiful emerges. My fingers hurt A LOT. George Harrison taught himself to play guitar and apparently used to practice until his fingers bled.

Tonight I was, somewhat ambitiously, trying to play 'Waterloo Sunset' by my second favourite band in the world, The Kinks. (I couldn't). It's a really, really beautiful song and to be honest they probably shouldn't print the chords in books so incompetents like me can mangle it. But it reminded me of an interview I once saw on TV with Ray Davies, lead singer of the band, who wrote the song. He apparently struggled with alcohol abuse and his life got pretty messed up. One comment he made really stayed with me: 'I wasn't as good as Waterloo Sunset'.

I find the idea that he created something better than himself really intriguing. Usually Christians say that, while they are basically loved by God and therefore precious and valuable, their actions are less than perfect. Davies managed to create something pure and beautiful and 'better than himself', a vulnerable and imperfect human being. An amazing achievement.

First one to identify the Beatles song which contains the words in the title of this post wins...

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