My wife Sara played the harp professionally. She owns a harp that is more than 100 years old. Harps are strange instruments; among their quirks, they can easily get out of tune.
On one occasion, Sara guested with an orchestra that was performing in a cold, drafty concert hall. The harp wasn't needed until after intermission, so Sara placed it on stage, tuned it, and waited in the wings. During intermission, Sara realized that the cold air had caused the harp to fall way out of tune and frantically began tuning it (there are a LOT of strings to tune individually!). She barely finished before the performance resumed.
But there was another problem. Because the concert was being filmed, a back door was open for all the camera cords and wires running to their source. The draft from the back door kept knocking the harp out of tune. Sara was literally tuning the harp during her songs - a nightmare scenario.
Harps can easily fall out of tune, as conditions around them change. So can hearts. Our hearts can fall out of tune with God as we go through life conditions that can sway our attention or cause us to doubt.
"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," Robert Robinson's classic 18th century hymn now revived in contemporary Christian music, contains this line:
"Tune my heart to sing thy praise."
It's a lovely phrase that indicates our need for alignment with God. When our hearts are out of tune, they are dissonant, which means there is a conflicting sound. We're in conflict with God. To tune our hearts is to resolve the conflict and to align with God more closely.
When you tune a harp, you are tuning against a standard. A tuner device can show you exactly the frequency to which you must align. Similarly, scripture is our standard, our "tuner device." By absorbing and practicing scripture, and through prayer and communion with the Holy Spirit, we can once again tune our hearts to sing His praise.
Registration for an online book study of "The Next Thing: A Christian Model for Dealing with Crisis in Personal Life" is now open! I'll be leading the study, which will occur Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Central from Sept. 13 through Oct. 11. You can register at https://store.ceciltaylorministries.com/collections/online-book-studies . If you need a book (required) or a Participant's Guide (recommended), you can pick those up at the same store site.
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