Tune in.

That’s what the orchestra must do.

What the flutes and piccolos and clarinets must do. What the trumpets and trombones and French horns must do. Even the cellos and violas, they all must tune their instruments to that single reedy oboe’s A-440 pitch if they want to effectively harmonize together. If they want a concerto performance that awakens its audience with a satisfying sense of musical peace.

To have congruency with others, after all, takes work. To synchronize a hundred different instruments each with their own unique way of making music means turning in, leaning in, and listening with considerable effort and resolve.

But isn’t that what we are called to do as Christians? Aren’t we supposed to put in the effort to make peace and get along?

God wants us to harmonize. He wants believers’ lives to blend together with each other like an orchestra. He wants our very different personalities and selves to become a peace-filled, united front for the sake of His gospel. Because isn’t peace the environment that best attracts others’ spiritual ears? Isn’t peace the thing that harbors within itself the very real possibility of bringing an unbelieving world, an ever-listening audience, to the saving message of Jesus they so desperately need?

Consider what the psalmist says,

“I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his saints—but let them not return to folly” (Psalm 85:8 NIV).

God promises peace, but His promise hinges on what the psalmist writes before. We must listen to the Lord if we want peace. We must tune in to His voice if we want peace in our own lives and especially if we want to walk in one accord, to orchestrate a gospel symphony that beautifully resounds to those around us.

When we listen for His voice, we draw near to His presence. When we draw near to His presence, we experience who He is. And do you know who our God really is? He is our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. He is our Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

He Himself is peace.

When we are near to Him and let our hope be found in Him, then the differences we see in each other become pieces of a platform for the communication of wholeness and the grace-filled refrain of atonement.

At-one-ment.

That’s a song worthy of His name. And that song needs no concert hall or pre-planned timetable to reverberate off the rooftops of this world.

It only needs you and me to tune daily into Him.

GOING DEEPER

How might God be calling you to better tune in to Him today? In what ways can you seek him more in order to fulfill His promise of living at peace with others?