PERIODIC TUNE-UP

TODAY - I am at home while our next-door neighbor tunes Jessica's new piano. Well, it's new to her. And to us. It is great to have music in the house again. I enjoy listening to her plunk on the keys.
Which brings me back to today - to this very moment in time.
Out neighbor friend is presently tuning the piano as I tap out this blog. One note - over and over again - occasionally with a tune up or a tune down. Several minutes (seems like hours) on the same note. He is here for his week after tune-up check-up. Last week Richard worked several hours initially tuning up the old piano. He said that every key was flat when he started. He got it as good as he could (which sounded a heap-site better than when he began the process). We talked, he left, and I began to nurse a headache that had developed in the hours of hitting the same notes over and over. He was meticulous and did a great job. Did it mention it took him several hours to do?
I wondered. I have sung a song for years that includes the phrase, "Tune our lips for praise!" I wondered.
Is it possible that for the past several years of my life the Lord has continued to hit on the same keys - anger, lust, greed, arrogance, forgiveness, patience, etc - in the attempt to tune up my life. I have looked over the past couple months and the song I hear playing has been rather discordant. I seem to be like the mother who told the band director, "You all did a good job but I noticed my son was the only one who was in step!" Or "You choir was fantastic but my kid was the only one on pitch!"
I think I have been doing fairly well as I listen to the tune I am producing - at least, in contrast to those around me. Fairly well -- until I looked back the past couple months and listened to the music of my life in contrast to that of Jesus. Boy! Am I ever out of tune!
Bad news - good news: first the bad - He has a long way to go to get my life perfectly in tune with His. Now the good - He plays and sings His song through me so loudly that it drowns out my mistakes. His grace covers my discordant moments, my times of falling in weakness, my sin and rebellion, my missing the great opportunities to do good but didn't. He plays so loudly that it seems as though I never missed a note or even forgot the song we were singing. And, better still, then He treats me that way- as if I never missed a note or forgot a single word.
AMAZING! He treats me as if I am first chair and I never missed the mark once. And people wonder why I love HIM and want to be like HIM? Just listen to Him sing and play His song.