To Make the Music Better

 

Yet take Thy way, for sure Thy way is best:
Stretch or contract me, Thy poor debtor:
This is but tuning of my breast,
To make the music better.

-George Herbert

The lovely English priest-poet, George Herbert is taking us into insights for our spiritual desolation, as something might be overshadowing, challenging, or suffering within. If we are so able to resist the grip and despair that might rise, we, as Herbert so beautifully places it, are made into finer music. We are going through tuning so we can make the better music through our lives. 

The journey into and through a challenging time doesn't mean we are a failure - it means we are faithful followers and God is calling us to endure and resist the darkness that might try to overshadow us, or the temptation that pulls us away from Him. The more we resist, the more we are able to resist, and we grow in our spiritual maturity.

 It's a beautifully lyrical idea of being out of tune; needing to be tuned by God, set back on the path called straight. It's like Dante encountering when he left the path to one that was crooked. As we all get out of tune by straying away from the fine tuner, God. Sometimes we don't realize we are out of tune. Sometimes we do. The more wisdom and discernment we build, the more we are able to see when we have gotten out of tune and need to be restored - return to the heart as Saint Augustine said, to the Lord who loves us. Turn back, tune back.

If we ponder deep down, we will see how God's way is the best, we often see that played out, and yet we still try to control everything to our own selfish wills. In fact, we are poor debtors, as Herbert wrote, fully in debt to God, and we owe Him everything, for we would not have all the blessings without His grace upon us. That may sound strange to a modern post-Christian mindset. But everything we have is from God, all blessing a gift, has come down from the Father of lights - not because we deserve it, but because he loves us and created us in His image. 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1.17)

When we turn our thanks to the proper place, we begin to be tuned to play a more beautiful music for the world to hear, to draw others closer to God and their meaningful purpose.