Back in the early 1930's there was a sheep rancher in the remote mountains of Idaho who loved to play his violin and listen to the radio. He loved to listen to one of the only stations that would come through clearly, which was located in California. He would try to play some of those songs on the radio, and sometimes try to accompany them from time to time. It was a source of great joy for the rancher.
As the rancher played his violin, the violin started to become out of tune and no longer sounded the way it should. He tried to fix it time and time again but it was always either a little to sharp or a little to flat. He had no way of getting his violin in tune because he did not have a tuning fork with that correct pitch.
As the rancher thought about his dilemma a thought occurred to him. Perhaps this radio station in California might be able to help him out. So he sat down and wrote a letter to the radio station, informing them of his situation and asking them if they would please help him out. He asked the radio station if they would on a certain hour and minute on a particular day, would they please strike the right note for him to tune his violin.
The radio station did just that. On the exact request date and time they stopped everything else, silenced all other sounds for just a moment and struck that note for that rancher. Hundreds of miles away was that rancher with his violin in hand heard the right note that was struck and was able to tune his violin and got it back in proper working order.
Many years ago when people started seeing all of the new inventions and various things that would make life easier. Many people thought that there would come a day in the future were we would be working less and have more and more time for leisure activities.
Fast-forward to today and we find ourselves busier, more stressed out, and working more hours. We live in a fast paced society where we are constantly connected. Life is moving faster than ever before. Whatever the people back in the day thought about what life would be like, sadly they were mistaken. Instead of slowing down, we are speeding up.
This business of life is further complicated with all the things that keep pulling at our attention. From social media, movies, music, TV, politics, hobbies and sports and events. We have an abundance of things to keep us occupied and busy even in our down time.
All of these things has a tendency to take its toll on our lives. Just like the ranchers violin no longer was in tune do to the constant use, our busy lives can cause us to go out of tune as well. This busyness can cause us to become our of tune in several ways.
It can cause us feeling out of tune with our selves, leaving us exhausted and stressed out. The busyness of our lives can leave us with no room for ourselves. It can cause us to miss out on the very things that we enjoy and bring us a since of joy in our lives. It can become out of tune with the people around us. The relationships that are closest to us and most dear. Relationship can be strained under the pressure of our lives that have become to busy to build and foster the relationships around us.
This busyness can cause to to become out of tune with God. We can become so busy that we fail to spend time with the Lord, failing to foster our relationship with Christ and build on our faith. It can cause us to become lukewarm in our walk. Its this busyness that causes us to compromise our devotion, silence our prayers, stop our service, and weakens our worship.
Sadly this is where many Christians are these days. This is why church attendance is dropping. This is why 80 percent of the work done in the church is done by 20 percent of the people. This is why we are no longer seeing God move mightily in our lives and in the life of the church. This is why more and more pastors are leaving the ministry and why more and more Christians are no longer serving in the church. What we see in the church today and in the average believers life, at least here in America, is the result of being out of tune with God.
It is in such a time as these that we really do need to get back in tune with God. It is in these times that we need to set out a time in our busy lives to sit down and listen. To spend some time with God. To go to the Lord in prayer. Sit down and read the word of God, study it, meditate on it and listen to what God maybe trying to say to you. We need to be intentional about it and set out to do it. We need to be get tired of being out of tune and do whatever we can to get our lives back in tune with God.
Listen to the words found in Psalm 95;
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted Me, tested Me, and saw My work.- (Psa 95:6-9)
Notice that the passage tells us that this should not wait till Sunday rolls around. It should not wait until you have got all your ducks in a row. When you feel you have enough free time to do it. The passage tells us "TODAY" if you will hear His voice,...HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART! Surrender your time, your plans, you busyness and GET BACK IN TUNE WITH GOD!
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