A 440. You know what that means, right? All you good musicians out there. , , that's right, it's the "A" note above middle "C". Still confused? A 440 is a tone that occurs at 440 hz. Not 441, not 439, but 440. It's become the standard for tuning musical instruments. Pianos are tuned to A 440. All other notes are tuned relative to that pitch.
It's not hard to get off the mark. Just listen to our guitarists at rehearsal (Just kidding, don't get bent out of shape!) Or the altos when they can't find their note. OK, yes, I go out of tune as well. It's not hard to do. It's easier to go off the pitch than it is to stay on the pitch. Why? Because A 440 is exact, and we mortals are far from exact, or perfect. Is there anyone who can consistently, every time, without fail, sing or play A 440? I've never met this beast. He/she would be somewhat of a freak of nature.
The bad thing about A 440 is that it shows up our flaws. It proves time and again how imperfect we are. It makes us sound really bad when we are playing or singing along and we're off, but the other instrument or vocalist is "on". There are some very good things about A440 however. It helps us maintain consistency. If we all came to rehearsal and everyone tuned the "A" to a different hz, it would quickly become cacophony. (That's a big word basically meaning "noise") The fact that there is a standard means that we can achieve harmony with each other. It also keeps us striving to achieve the standard. Being good musicians, it's not that we want to go out of tune - we just accidently or inadvertently slip into it. The A440 helps keep us on track.
I find that there are many parallels in the music world to our spiritual lives. A440 is one of them. Like A440, the Word of God has survived the centuries to remain the standard by which we live our lives. It is perfect - it provides us with a clear, pristine, simple standard of what God expects from us. As believers, we strive to meet that standard - but often fall short. But all we need to do is keep going back to our reference point. . . God's Word. . . and we can quickly "tune" our lives in step with His standard. And that's an important reason to "hide God's Word in your heart."
I don't have perfect pitch. That is being able to pick out A440 out of the air and reproduce it. Rare is the person who does. But I do have excellent "relative" pitch. That's when you know if a pitch is correct in relation to A440. None of us have perfect spiritual "pitch", otherwise we'd be God. But you can develop excellent "relative" spiritual pitch by reading and knowing God's Word, through prayer and through allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you.
How's your spiritual intonation today? Are you striving to stick to the standard, or are you finding yourself drifting away from it? Let's all make a concerted effort to evaluate our spiritual intonation this week before we place ourselves in front of the congregation to lead them in worship! Oh, and yes, tune your instruments as well. I hate it when we're out of tune.
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