"On Pitch"

"On Pitch"

   

    When Frances sang in college, her music director tested her by requiring that she sing on pitch while listening to someone else sing in a different key.  It's not an easy thing to do, although I'm sure that Frances's remarkable singing gifts easily carried her through the challenge.  Today, however, I faced a similar test and I'm not certain I passed.

   While leading the music during a service, two of the attendees sang in different keys than than the one in which I played and sang the song.  Two different keys.  Not sure which ones, and again, I'm not sure I stayed on pitch with the original.  Hope so, but no guarantees (I'm not the singer Frances is, by a long shot!).  I could tell that others in the congregation realized what was happening - it would be hard to have missed it - but we pressed on with the making of a joyful, if not beautiful noise to the Lord.

   I often think of the Christian life as a matter of staying on pitch with the Lord, as it were.  We must focus on our own melody first, seeking our Heavenly Father's ongoing searching of our walk with Him.  Moreover, we must not allow ourselves to be diverted when others seem to be singing off pitch.  No excuse exists for joining brothers and sisters who travel wayward paths of doctrine, practice, word, and attitude.  It's easy to go with the carnal flow, or in terms of our present consideration, to veer from the key in which our Lord's music resounds.  However, God grants grace to all who will honor Him and do His will, the grace of being enabled to walk in His Spirit and Truth regardless of what others are doing.  We answer to the Lord.  Following the courage of our convictions (if Biblically based) helps to keep us in pitch with Him.  At the end of the day, this is all that matters.  The challenge is great, but the rewards are greater if we listen carefully to the Lord's song, and seek to harmonize with Him above all others.

"Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil."

(Proverbs 4:25-27)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." (Proverbs 3:25-26).