Refine & Fine-Tune: Every Instrument's Desire!

By Pastor Carmela E. Head

There’s something spectacular about watching a live marching band or a live orchestra’s performance.  We become instantly awestruck at the shiny brass, woodwind, strings, the drums and the percussion instruments. Amazingly, we gaze with wonder and hold a fascination of how so many beautiful and powerful instruments can unite in one sound with such precision and grace. Most of us grew-up playing an instrument or we knew someone who did.  Some still do actually.

Much is expected and required from these amazing instruments, especially sound accuracy and appearance. When the marching band takes the field or an orchestra takes the stage, all eyes are on them and all ears are tuned into the sound.

What happens in preparation and behind the scenes is often overlooked.  Yet, the most important part of the pre-performance is more significant than the performance itself.  It’s in the refining and fine-tuning of every instrument.  Much maintenance is involved in the look and sound of each instrument.  They must be refined & fine-tuned.

When we hear those two words, refine and fine-tune, we immediately think that they are synonymous, when in actuality, their meanings are quite different.  There is yet a similarity in both of their outcomes, however. It’s when we take a closer look at these two words, we find that both are renewing and producing positive results!  Amazing!

When something is being refined it is being improved or perfected by pruning or polishing. We do this through cultivating things.  To fine-tune something is to improve through minor alterations or revision. When we fine-tune we adjust, calibrate, tweak or align.  As I began pealing back layers of the meaning of these two words, revelation came:  “Refining produces clarity. Fine-tuning produces accuracy!”  That’s powerful!

Every instrument requires the physical maintenance of the soft cloth buffing the outward appearance.  Each crevice, groove and surface is buffed to reveal the quality of the material of which it is made. Brass, wood, and other surfaces must be handled with intense, yet, careful enhancing so that the real essence of the instrument can be preserved, retained and made visible. If this continual process were overlooked, rust and corrosion would slowly compromise the integrity of the instrument and it could take more time to restore its luster. Without the necessary care, buttons will stick, dust will settle in on the strings and in some cases, piano keys will begin to shift.  It goes to show that there is much appreciation for the craftsmanship of these instruments. Hallelujah!  Did you catch that? We are fearfully made by design!  When we see the instruments in the performance, we see the continual refining of their well-kept appearance.  Not only does an instrument need continual care of its exterior it will need continual fine-tuning.


We are very much like instruments in that we require refining and fine-tuning of our gifts, attributes and other areas of our lives. As we study the scriptures, the Word of God becomes more engrafted and embedded in our lives and we become polished & buffed, cultivated, calibrated and revised so that who we have been called to be becomes more apparent. We then become more clearly defined and more accurate in our vision.  The delicate care, varnishing and tweaking in the many roles that we serve in, the very essence and uniqueness of who we are is constantly growing and perfected at the careful hands of the Master.

As we are continually being refined in our ideas, in our implementation and in our walk, we are then able to be used mightily and are ready to function as we have been designed to function.
One of my favorite passages, Psalm 1: 2-3, comes to mind when I think of refining:

                                                  “But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
                             And in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree
                                                              Planted by the rivers of water
                                                     That brings forth its fruit in its season
                                                         Whose leaf also shall not wither;
                                                      And whatever he does shall prosper."

We can know that as we are shaped more and more into the image of God, we are moving from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Do you long to be shaped more into the image of who God has called you to be?
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                 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your purpose.  
                                                                        Psalm 20:4 (NJKV)
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 As we grow and mature in the things of God, we ultimately are ever being reestablished.
                            This IS renewal! Refined and fine-tuned: every instrument’s desire!


Revealing Christ
Restoring Lives








_{Copyright Carmela E. Head 2021}