THE ART OF FINE-TUNING

Fine-tuning our lives both spiritually and vocationally is not a one-time event but a life-time process. My first car was a 1949 Ford coupe with a big V-8 engine, for which I paid the whopping price of $175. When I got my Ford in 1961, gas cost about 20 cents a gallon and three or four dollars for gas was usually more than enough for a week. The carburetors on those engines could be adjusted by hand, as this was pre-electronic ignition days. So we would spend hours playing with the adjustment on the carbs, trying to get the engine to run just a little more smoothly, a little better.

What I have just described is very much like the fine-tuning process of both our devotional and vocational lives. I know I want to be the best that I can be and I am willing to learn how to make adjustments that bring improvement! I believe you are reading this because you want to improve, too!

The definition of fine-tuning is “to make small adjustments for optimal performance or effectiveness, to improve by pruning or polishing.”

· In order to run his best race, every runner must fine-tune not only what he wears and how he runs (his stride, his breathing), but also try to bring his body and his mind to a state of preparation. Why? So that he can run the best possible race.

· Every instrument in the orchestra must be “fine-tuned” so that when the conductor raises his hand for the first note to be played, every instrument is in harmony. It is to be a symphony not a cacophony.

· A rifle has to be “sighted in” (fine-tuned) so that when it is called into use, it sends its bullet to the intended target. The rifle is not much good if it cannot hit the target while in the hands of a skilled marksman.

Fine-tuning is a combination of God’s involvement in the development of our lives and our personal attention to issues that the Holy Spirit brings to our awareness.

If I have been called to be an associate then I want to be the best associate I can be. If I have been called to be the leader then I want to be the best leader I can be and develop the best and most effective leadership skills that I can.

This is what the whole focus of my teaching is meant to do. It is not to put you under guilt or condemnation of any kind. It is designed to help you, to open up new possibilities, to assist you in polishing and refining your gifts and talents, so that at the end of the day you will have that profound sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing, “I have done the very best I could. It may not be perfect, but I believe the Lord is pleased, my boss is pleased and, therefore, I am pleased.”

Jesus says, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Jesus is talking to fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew, as He called them into His service. Jesus is speaking of the part He would play in assisting them to develop their potential as His followers. The word “make” is very rich and loaded with meaning. It is the word that describes an author as he takes disconnected words and works with them again and again until he completes a masterpiece. It is the picture of a master craftsman who takes a pile of rough wood and works with it until he has a beautiful piece of furniture.

The heart of every piano is the soundboard, the part that enables the piano “to speak” with rich and full tones. It is the soundboard that gives the piano its personality, its quality. A good soundboard cannot be made in a few minutes or even a few hours. For some concert pianos, the time needed to build a soundboard can be a year or longer.

The soundboard is made of separate pieces of wood that are carefully selected and glued together. After the gluing, the soundboard is allowed to dry and “season.” All along, the process is carefully monitored so that the moisture content of the wood that is to become the tonal heart of the piano is just right.

After the wood of the soundboard has dried and is seasoned just right, it has to be stretched. This stretching is what brings out the rich tones and quality. Stretching is achieved by bending or “crowning” the soundboard. Stretching is a result of pressure being carefully and consistently applied. If the wood is too dry, it will break and crack; too wet, and the wood fibers won’t have the necessary quality. When the soundboard is crafted properly, you have the possibility of a Steinway or a Yamaha. If it is done incorrectly…well, hello, honky-tonk!

Our Lord, His Father, and the Holy Spirit are “master craftsmen.” It is the meticulous attention of the Master Craftsmen that brings His work of art to as near to perfection as He can get it and that is the Lord’s goal for each of us. He will mold us, He will stretch us and season us so that we are brought to the place of maturity, and then our lives will “speak” with the richness and fullness of God.

When I conduct one of my “Tune-Up Seminars,” I try very hard to get a point of understanding across to all who are present and the point is this: Fine-tuning is accomplished by making small adjustments and is often a slow process of bringing the instrument/person as near to perfection as possible. It is really frustrating for anyone involved to try and make all the adjustments at one time. To try and accomplish it all at once usually ends in feelings of frustration and guilt and that is counterproductive.

Let me illustrate what I mean with the following story. In the 1972 Olympics, Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, a record that stood for 36 years until Michael Phelps surpassed it in Beijing. In preparing for the Olympics, Spitz’ coach told him that if he was going to win the gold and set a world record in one event, he had to improve on his best time by cutting off one second. That doesn’t sound like a lot but to a highly-conditioned and trained athlete who is already giving 100 percent-plus, that one second could seem like an impossibility. Mark Spitz said that the idea of improving by a second was simply beyond him, so he set a daily goal. He looked at the calendar and saw that it was approximately 100 days to the Olympics. He knew he needed to be at his peak performance level at the Games so he began to practice with a new daily goal in mind. Every day Spitz tried to improve by 1/100th of a second over the previous day. In doing so, he made the daily incremental improvements and won the gold at the Olympics, setting a new world record. He set that record by improving just a tiny bit each day.

When you study leadership and have scores of ideas poured into you in a short span of time, don’t try and implement them all at once. Just take a few of the ideas, ones that make sense to you, and work to improve in those areas. If you will take an incremental approach as Mark Spitz did and improve by a little bit here and a little bit there, you will be a better leader and a better person. And then down the road a bit you can do it again and again and in so doing, you will continue to grow and improve and do it without stress and guilt.

Fine-tuning is not about putting you under stress and making you feel less than successful. Fine-tuning is all about making small adjustments that move you toward being fully the person God intended you to be.