About Tune My Heart

Come, thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace
                       --Robert Robinson, 1758

When I pick up my guitar after allowing my children to bump it and plunk the strings, I often find that the perfect chord yields something less than a perfect chord.  Before I can play, I have to spend a few moments tuning the guitar. 

Tuning requires two actions.  I can simply tune the strings so that they make sounds spread the right distance apart.  For example, as long as the lowest two strings are set five half-steps apart from each other, it really doesn't matter if they are an E and an A.  They could just as easily be an F and an A# or a D and a G.  If the guitar is in tune with itself, then it's a functional instrument--at least for solo playing.

But to truly tune my guitar, I'll need to access some outside source, some standard pitch.  Normally, that has me plunking a loud E on a piano.  I make sure that the fattest string sounds that E accurately, and then I tune the rest of the strings from there.  Only when you tune to that standard pitch can you truly say that your instrument is tuned.

When Robert Robinson wrote the words to "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," he used that image of tuning.  The human heart is not naturally tuned to sing of God's grace.  My heart naturally sings more about crummy weather and too little sleep.  My heart wants to focus on the things that my eyes say I want or need.  This heart of mine is a lot like a guitar that's been steadily abused.  It's out of tune.

So how do you go about tuning a human heart?  A lot of people try that first approach, making sure that all of the strings of our lives are set in proper intervals.  That's what we do when we listen to Dr. Phil and Wayne Dyer.  That sort of tuning is fine, but, just like a guitar, we need a more precise approach.  We have to be tuned to the absolute standard, the perfect pitch of God.

Just as my guitar cannot tune itself, I cannot tune myself.  Instead, I have to allow the Great Musician to turn the pegs and set my heart to the right pitch.  Thankfully, God is perfectly willing--even eager to tune us, if we'll just let him.  When we spend time with God, reading and meditating on his word and praying to him, we can expect that he will--sometimes slowly and sometimes suddenly--tune us to play his songs.

Tune My Heart is my attempt, using my strongest medium, words, to grow better in tune to my Lord and God.  By placing these meditations online, I invite you to use them for the same purpose.  My prayer is that the strings of your heart will better resonate with his music as a result of your time among these pages.

Practical Matters

I aim to add new material to this site each day.  Since this is a one-man operation, you'll probably find some gaps here and there.

These devotions are offered freely; however, there are some expenses involved with maintaining this web server.  Should you desire to help defray those expenses, look through the items in the Reading Room.  When you see something that looks worthwhile, you can buy it.  If you don't, that's fine.

If you're a Bible student--and we all should be--you might find the Bible Link pages useful as well.

Mark Browning teaches English at Johnson County Community College.  He holds degrees in English from William Jewell College, UMKC, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.  When he's not grading an endless pile of student papers or writing devotions here, he enjoys spending time with his wife, four kids, one granddaughter, and dog--not always in that order.  A deacon at his church, Mark ministers in various areas of the church, most notably in the music and drama ministry and the children's ministry.  As you'll glean from these devotions, Mark is, like most of us, a definite work in progress.