Fine Tuning

Radio listeners…TV Viewers … do you recall the days when you had to go through the steps of fine tuning? Remember…
Select the channel or station…. This gave you the connection to your program of interest… You could see or hear what you wanted, perhaps, but in those days pure clarity was further achieved with
Fine tuning… You might turn a button, adjust a dial, or play with the antennae – sometimes called “rabbit ears”.



The goal of fine tuning is “realistic” or "true" reception.
Fine tuning makes it more likely that one is receiving what the station is transmitting.

These days, most receivers, transmitters and recorders used by the general public
feature automatic fine tuning. Only the most sophisticated equipment will enable the user to adjust the finer aspects of reception – and quite frankly, most listeners or viewers would prefer not to be bothered by the task. Please, just give me the perfected result.

There is a similarity between the move away from the fine tuning skills of audio/visual consumers and the tendency of the “busy” children of God to move quickly through time set aside for prayer.

In the church, we speak about “discernment”. Discernment is the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, promised to us by Christ, which reveals God’s intention or plan for each and all of us. Discernment is a gift given freely each step of each day by God to assist us as we are surrounded by many other sources of information (all of that worldly “stuff”). Prayer for discernment is similar to seeking a particular audio/visual signal in that we must “select” and “fine tune”.

Select: We turn our attention to God and
Fine Tune: We clear away the static and obstructions to God’s voice

We turn our attention to God through prayer. We fine tune by learning how to
move away from distractions which may be mental, physical or emotional. Some of us seem to know how to do this naturally; but most of the faithful confess that fine-tuning prayer is easier desired than done. Most of us must be taught the skill, and all of us need to practice it.

Prayerful discernment takes time. It takes patience. It takes commitment.

There is no short cut or automatic fine tuning with regard to receiving the voice of God.

This weekend at CRLC we will invite folks to "prayerfully discern" their response to the questions of stewardship.  Will we take the time to fine tune our reception of God's counsel regarding our responses?