There was one defining moment when my love for the radio started. It was the start of something new here in Denver, something glorious! It was 1991 and it was announced that Colorado would have their own baseball team. There couldn’t have been more wondrous news to my ten-year-old self! That season, along with every season after, I have avidly been listening to the radio to my Rockies team. There is something about the radio that is not fulfilled in mere watching on TV alone. It has a presence—the voices communicate and relay the game as it unfolds, the tension and excitement crackling even over the airwaves. There is nothing like it!
I remember summer evenings, returning from playing my own softball games, and Dad would pop on the radio in his white Mazda truck on our way home. Beautiful Colorado sunsets would adorn our view as the voices on the radio would relay the game to us. Those are some of my fondest memories. It is still one of my favorite things to do—driving at sunset with the windows open, the radio playing the night’s baseball game.
Today I was thinking about how easy it is to “get out of tune.” I have had a lot of car transfers this year, and in each one I have had to actively “tune” back to my station, 850 KOA. Thankfully, tuners nowadays are pretty automatic, nothing like wincing as I slowly pushed the dial, hoping not to miss the station. But whether someone else drove the car, or I was in a loaner car, etc.… it was essential for me to find my way back to my favorite station to hear my favorite baseball team.
I am thinking that “tuning up” has a lot more to do with my spiritual life—perhaps yours too—than any radio station. It is amazing, at the fast pace of life, to go about not truly being aware. Perhaps we tuned our hearts to God’s grace in the spring, but here it is mid-summer and we realize that slowly the channel has changed, faded, or even just produces static….
It is time for a tune-up, friend. Time to realign and recenter on the Lord.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” —Romans 12:2
No, this does not have to be a big conundrum or a big “to-do.” Just like with the retuning of the radio, it is often a slight change that produces dramatic results—life-changing results for our spiritual lives. Have you gotten complacent? Have your habits ceased to work for you or caused you to just go through the motions? It may be time for a tune-up.
Tuning up comes in many ways and forms. But often it is just a SMALL thing.
1. Reading your Bible for yourself
I encourage you, yes, even if it works to listen to the Word or catch a Scripture on your calendar… actually get out your own Bible and read a verse a day. I have found things like this to be helpful in seasons of busyness. It is just good to continue to get the life of God—the zoe life of God—flowing through us.
Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” —John 6:63
Now that is the ultimate tune-up!
I was recently encouraged by this video from A Preacher’s Wife: The Simple Five-Minute Habit That Keeps Me in God’s Word. She also offers these free 30-day Scripture-writing plans to help make spending time in God’s Word simple and manageable.
2. Worship
I am amazed at how worship always has a way to tune our hearts fresh and anew to God’s presence and who He is. It is easy during the week, during the busy seasons, to get caught in our own perspective—what we see or don’t see in our lives, what we feel or don’t feel. But when worshipping the God of the universe, we are reminded of His presence and what He is doing. We are reminded of His perspective.
This is truly something that has been very powerful to me this year. While all worship can be good, find songs that center more on God and less on “me,” and you will find yourself refreshed even more. Two that have helped me are Discovery Worship and Calvary Worship.
3. Selah moments
Selah moments are what a friend of mine calls moments to step back and ponder what God has been doing. This truly is “retuning” our hearts to His. We get busy and don’t always see the miraculous small things, the small answers to prayer, the small shifts… but when we take a moment of peace to sit and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal these things, it becomes a moment of becoming re-attuned and realigned with God and what He is doing in our lives.
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” —Luke 2:19
So whether you like to listen to the radio or not, or whether your favorite station is KOA or K-LOVE, it is time to get tuned back up in our spirits. Time to realign and recenter on the LORD and His plans and ways for our lives.
What is one way you feel the Holy Spirit may be leading you to do that this week?
I personally stink at stepping back and pondering—the selah moment. It is so easy in this day and age to keep going, keep doing, keep researching, keep scrolling… but taking a purposeful time-out to ponder things in our hearts, like Mary did, is essential to our further growth with the Lord.
Prayer: Lord, would You speak to each one of us this week and show us Your realignment, whether through the Word, worship, selah moments, or other plans You have for us? Would You help us not become complacent or out of tune, but rather richly and perfectly tuned into Your presence and grace? We want that more than anything else—to be walking in alignment and attunement with You, Lord. We thank You for Your faithful help. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Until next time,
P.S. In “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, the lyric “tune my heart to sing Thy grace” keeps running through my spirit. May we be attuned to His presence and grace in greater measure today!
Melanie Talevski 