No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. Hebrews 12:11 NLT

I love playing guitar, and one of my favorite things is to sit alone and play worship music after putting on a set of new strings. But on the other hand, my least favorite thing is changing those blasted strings! One by one, the old strings must be unwound, then, after carefully pulling out each peg, new ones can be put in their place. Then, slowly and gently, each one has to be stretched till its sound equals the pitch pipe’s note. Finally, when everything sounds great, you play a few chords and -voila! = it is immediately out of tune! Yep, those new strings aren’t ready for prime time, till they’ve been played and retuned, over and over. Restringing my guitar today, reminded of the verse from Hebrews about discipline, and how God has been doing some needed restringing in my life this week.

I had used my busyness as an excuse and failed to keep my promise to visit someone. Though I probably visited a hundred people that week, I failed to listen to the Spirit’s prompting to make time in my schedule. “I will get there next week.” I thought. But sadly, my friend didn’t have another week, because yesterday he passed away. As I prayed in the room with friends and family, the daughter’s words of the previous night rang in my ears, “Pastor Pete, you didn’t come!” Yes, I am sorry, and yes, she forgave me and best of all, yes, he had prayed with her to receive Christ the previous week when I wasn’t there. The hands of God are turning the tuning pegs of my life today and unwinding old habits and stretching my heart, till it sounds more like Heaven’s melody and less like the world around me.

How wonderful God’s mercy, that restores and helps us even in our failures. For me that blessing came when I heard our friend tell us of her final conversation with her dad. Though he could no longer communicate his eyes looked around till he saw his daughter. Then, she held his hand saying, “It’s okay daddy. The sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s a good day to go to Heaven.” Then, just moments later, he slipped into the arms of Jesus, and those words will forever remind me that, God is never too busy.