Daily Maintenance

Most instruments must be tuned every time that they’re played. Tuning an instrument involves adjusting certain aspects of the instrument to ensure that the note that it is playing is correct. Each musical note has a specific sound frequency that determines its sound, so when you are tuning an instrument, you are dialing it to a specific frequency. On a guitar for example, each string is tuned to an individual note, or frequency. Tuning each individual string not only ensures the guitar will sound good by itself, but it will also be in tune with any other instruments that it is playing with.
From time to time, my guitar will become more and more difficult to keep in tune. Sometimes it will get to the point that I have to tune it every time there’s a break in the service. When it gets to this point, that’s usually an indication that the strings need to be replaced. Newer strings they hold their tension better than older strings; meaning the guitar stays in tune better and longer.
However, sometimes simply changing the strings doesn’t correct the problem. Even with new strings, the guitar will not sound quite right. This means I’ve gotten lazy and have not been taking proper care of my guitar. Since guitars are made of wood, they need to be in an environment with a relative humidity of 40% to 55%. Humidity outside of that range will cause the wood to swell or contract and potentially warp, twist, or crack. Even the slightest changes in the wood can affect the way the guitar sounds.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in our area the weather is a little inconsistent. We will have stretches where the natural humidity in the air will be in that range. However, most of the time it dips well below that, especially indoors in the winter when we are running our heaters. When this happens, I have to keep a humidifying pack in my guitar case, and even run some room humidifiers to help also. I really should be doing that year-round because a consistent humidity is better for the health of the guitar in the long run.
The same concept is true for our spiritual lives. We generally can’t control what is happening in the environment around us. The only thing that we have the most control over is what’s happening internally and personally. Daily Bible reading and prayer help to maintain a consistent, ideal environment for us spiritually. We think wiser, make better decisions, and react to outside pressures better. This doesn’t mean that things will always go perfectly for us. Just like a guitar still has to be tuned, we need the Spirit, and other people through the Spirit, to help us make adjustments in our lives. But if we’ve been faithful in our daily walk, those adjustments will tend to be minor and we will respond better. The conditions of life are too up-and-down. The regular, daily means of grace help us to maintain a spiritual environment that keep us from drying out, warping, twisting, or cracking from outside (and inside) pressures. But it’s not easy. We have to do the daily work of maintenance to live faithful, God honoring lives. Let us make it a priority to spend time with the Lord daily.
My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. – Proverbs 4:20-22

-Kendall Harris