In Tune… Or Not?

‘I Can See Your Voice’ is a recent TV game show where contestants and celebrities must identify good singers from bad singers without hearing them perform. It features talented singers alongside performers who are exceedingly painful to listen to.

In tune… or not?

We can be in tune as individuals… physically…eating healthily, jogging along the sea-front, returning to now-open gyms… mentally… at ease with ourselves, calm, content, cheer-full, peace-full…

…or not… living with a life-limiting disability, awaiting covid-delayed surgery, undergoing cancer treatment… psychological damage linked to our past, anxious, depressed, lonely, angry, addicted, tear-full, …

It’s good to be back playing in our church band as services are live-streamed. Musical inactivity during this last year has made us all a little rusty. Discussions about tunefulness before and after the service are hard and occasionally hurtful…  

We can be in tune with each other…in our families, workplaces, schools, churches, local communities, nationally, internationally…living lives of interdependence, compassionate empathy, caring service, mutual understanding and support, faithful dependability, restored relationships…

…or not…living lives of selfishness, greed, hate, deception, mutual hurt, physical and mental aggression, destructive gossip, self-centred ambition…

Yesterday at church Esther talked about the phrase ‘Thy will be done’ in the Lord’s Prayer, describing it as ‘the ultimate prayer of selflessness’, ‘a prayer to get in tune with God’…

We can be in tune with God…however we understand him…through our deliberate active engagement in prayer, meditation, worship or study; through God’s gracious revelation to us…

…or not…through deliberate desertion from a once-held faith, distance because of different priorities, laziness or avoidance, doubts or difficulties, spiritual darkness, simple non-belief…

The Jesus path that I follow says that God must come first.

As we love God then we love our neighbours and love ourselves. As we seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness then everything else follows…

As we’re in tune with God then we’re in tune with others and in tune with ourselves.