Resonate Well

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. (Colossians 3:15)

In high school I attempted to learn to play the guitar. I got pretty comfortable with a variety of chords and how to pick out a few songs. I remember one of my greatest struggles was keeping the guitar in tune. I would plink and plink on those strings until I got just the right tone on each and every string. The music sounded way better when my guitar was 'in tune'. Maybe that is why God emphasizes that we need to allow Christ to keep us in tune with each other - not 'one string' in his family being 'out of tune'. Do you know what the 'out of tune' string did when I played it? It called attention to itself! It constantly rang out with an untrue note and that caused everything else I played to just sound wrong. Whenever we are out of tune with each other it is kind of like that - attention is diverted to the one causing the 'disharmony'.

That 'out of tune' string was doing its own thing! It didn't want to be tuned into harmony with the rest. It was stubborn. Do you know how to take care of a stubborn guitar string that is out of tune? You crank up the pressure a bit more by tightening the tuning keys, letting it out a bit at times, and then you keep 'plinking' it until you find just the right tone! God isn't going to let us get out of tune for very long. He will crank up the pressure until there is a return of the desired tone! He will keep just the right amount of pressure on the string that allows the harmony to come through. Why? There is nothing more distracting to the unity of Christ's church than someone being the 'out of tune string' that demands it's own way!

Did I learn to tune the strings by my own 'ear'? No! I needed a pitch pipe to know where to start. I depended upon my ear to bring the strings into the right pitch, but the pitch pipe actually helped me have something to compare the tone of the string to in the first place. I think God gives us solid examples of how we can 'tune' our lives, but the best he gave was his Son's life on this earth. We learn by 'comparison' of our life with his - allowing the 'pitch' he constantly resonated to be the one we 'match' with ours. We just don't find a 'pitch' we want to assume and then run with it. We need to have the 'right pitch' to match our lives with or we will always be more than a little disharmonious! Just sayin!