Old School

The piano tuner spent the morning at my house yesterday. He was here just six months ago and at that time we made an appointment for this week. He didn’t call to make sure I would be home and he arrived twenty minutes early. When I opened the door, he walked right in and began working on our very old, very tired instrument without identifying himself or bothering with conversation. This guy was clearly old school.

I went into the kitchen to cook dinner and started hearing notes being played over and over. It wasn’t long before I noticed that the tuner kept going back to middle C and repeating it five or six times, then to the next key that needed to be adjusted and back to middle C five or six times again. This happened for more than two hours, and I was trying not to be annoyed by the repetition when it occurred to me that the old man wasn’t using a device of any kind; he was tuning the piano completely by ear. In this day and age.

After he was finished, I asked if he ever used a tuning instrument and he answered no, that he didn’t think they were accurate, that the only way to get to the right note was to compare it to C and work until it lined up just right. When I think about it, we all have middle C to guide us. The Bible is God’s word, what we should be constantly going back to and playing repeatedly until our thoughts and actions line up just right. I often forget this simple lesson, calling friends or family for advice and seeking wisdom through modern writings and sermons. I want to be old school, with my ear to be tuned to middle C so that my heart will know the truth, enabling me to play the music God intended all along.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. Psalm 119:105