Tune

"The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems."

–A.W. Tozer

Not too long ago, Stephanie, Elijah, and I spent our Christmas Holiday at my parents’ house. Elijah was intrigued by their piano, so we opened the upright and placed Elijah on the bench; however, his short attention span cut this new experience short as he soon lost interest and climbed down.

But after running my fingers over the black and white ivories, I reminisced of practicing as a child at this exact piano with a jar of candy on top to encourage my vigilance. According to an unbiased source (my mother), I was a child prodigy. You would never know that considering my lack of skill today. Nonetheless, I was compelled to pull several sheets of music from the bench and try my hands at playing. I would have preferred sweet-sounding notes to emanate from every tap of a finger, but each laborious thump betrayed the sweet hymns that I was endeavoring to capture.

I could blame my demotion to rookie status as reason for the horrible sound; no doubt my rusty talent protested the unfamiliar movements. I guess I could have questioned if the sheet music was in error, or if I was really reading the notes correctly. But truthfully, it is an impossibility to create beautiful music on a piano that is out of tune.

I have often been troubled by the fact so many good Christians disagree on so many issues. Men (and women), who genuinely seem to seek God in humility for answers, hold tight to drastically opposing viewpoints. On one hand we need to “agree to disagree,” but truth dictates that some are in error. I would assume we are all searching for the absolute, so then why do people who love Jesus believe such different things? Rather than singing in harmony, our Christian voice has become a chaotic commotion. Are we not using the same book, studying the same sheet music?

Some may defy logic and claim the printed music itself contains mistakes (after all, its not the original), and that may give partial explanation to the cacophony (I’ll leave this issue for another day). We could also blame it on immaturity and inexperience. However, I believe there is an even more subversive problem in our midst.

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry.”

–Ezekiel 14:4

I find this verse enlightening… and also extremely frightening.

Enlightening in that the reason all believers do not sound alike is that idolatry exists in their midst. Their very hearts betray their earnest prayers.

And frightening to the fact that I may be one of them.

“Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place....”

–A.W. Tozer

Idolatry is not necessarily made from wood or stone, but from inaccurate ideas about our creator. The reason our “music” does not match is that many of our hearts our simply “out of tune.” Our flesh compels us to embrace erroneous views of God, views that elevate ourselves and reduce the one who made us.

We mistakenly think that by reading scripture and asking for revelation that our conclusions will be reliable. However, the problem is not with our minds, but with our hearts. For if our hearts are out of tune, then the message we are receiving will be incorrect, no matter how brilliant we are.

As John Ortberg says in his book, “The Life You’ve Always Wanted,” we tend to treat prayer as “insider-information.” We tend to approach God, not seeking true guidance, but simply to know “which door to choose.” But if we do not know the God we approach, we could be misguided.

After all, the LORD’s ultimate purpose in the Christian life is to mold us into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). We must spend time with God through prayer and studying scripture, all the while being diligent to strip our hearts of unhealthy theology.

I conclude that the biggest problem in the visible church is not sincerity, but idolatry. And even though these false gods still bring us to our knees, their delicate strokes to our egos have us bowing in the wrong direction.