Relationships

In Tune

Even people who don’t know a lot about music can tell when a piano is badly out of tune. The sound the instrument emits is so strongly divergent from the sound that it should be making that the difference is instantly recognizable. Of course, the more that you know about music, the more likely you are to be able to tell when even small disparities exist. The more you are aware of what should be, the more you can recognize incongruities.

However, it’s not just with musical instruments that we are striving for harmony. God makes clear throughout Scripture that He wants His children to be united in working together for His Kingdom’s purposes (See I Corinthians 12:12-26 for instance). He wants us all to be singing from the same songbook; each contributing their part to the melody He is writing.

We can all admit, though, that this is a difficult task. Yet A.W. Tozer shares with us why, even though it is difficult, it’s possible. He writes:

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.  (The Pursuit of God, 1982, p. 90).

People from different backgrounds, different generations, speaking different languages, and using different methods, can all be united together, if their common note is Christ. If He is the standard that we are all striving towards, and He is the reason we do what we do, than the song we sing will be a beautiful one. The song will be His.

And much like even an untrained ear can tell when a piano is out of tune, so the watching world knows when His children are, which is all the more reason that we shouldn’t be.

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Growth

The Privilege of Duty

As a professor I sometimes come across some interesting situations. One of the more common ones is when a student wants accolades for simply doing what they were supposed to do, rather than doing what they were supposed to do exceptionally well. As I try to communicate to them, doing what you are supposed to do is the baseline – doing it well is when you receive commendation.

It’s an attitude we can carry into the rest of our lives too. The sports player wants “props” simply for showing up every day rather than hustling to get the job done. The government official wants reelection simply because they didn’t make things worse – not that they did a whole lot to make things better. Tips jars abound in restaurants and coffee shops as if additional recompense is expected. We want praise for doing what we ought – even though we ought to do it regardless of the praise.

It can be tempting to take this same attitude to our walk with God. Yet Scripture makes it clear that we shouldn’t. As Luke 17:1 tells us:

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.

This isn’t what we want to hear! What we want to hear is that God will commend us for what we’ve done – that somehow our good works means that we receive special treatment. When we don’t get it – when obeying God doesn’t equal an easy life – it’s tempting to grow weary with what we are supposed to do as Christians. We may attempt to justify “minor” disobedience – as if obedience to Christ was on a weighted scale. However, this verse clearly shows that when we obey God, we are not doing anything worthy of acclamation, instead we are doing what we rightfully should do as servants of Christ. How generous He is, then, that He does reward us for being faithful to His commands!

It’s a point that’s punctuated by the next story in Luke. Immediately following is the story of the healed lepers – ten of them benefited from Christ’s generous grace, yet only one expressed gratitude. We rightly consider this an injustice – they all should have been filled with gratitude for the One that restored their lives. Yet we do the same when we expect, rather than are grateful for, rewards for obedience to God.

It isn’t easy to wrap our heads around, let alone our hearts. But just as we would consider it an honor if we were selected to serve a modern-day king – how much more so the King of Kings! May we see serving Christ as the privilege that it is and recognize that as such we should obediently follow Him!

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