Martin Schleske, a master violin maker, writes he must yield to the
composition of the wood he uses before he can reshape it into a violin's body. He
chooses the wood of trees formed by rough weather, winds and meager ground.
The harsh weather of the mountainous areas where these trees grow produce
resilient wood with enough elasticity needed to correctly create the curved sides
that helps to generate the best sound. “He sometimes spends months seeking
the right tree by tapping on them with a tuning fork . . . . In old times, violin
builders found their ‘singer trunks’ at the rivers where all the harvested wood was
floated down to the cities.” The melodic sounds made when the trunks bounced
into others revealed themselves as the “singers.”

Schleske writes, “A good violin builder respects the texture of the wood and
under his fingers he feels the character, the solidity and density. This shows him
both the possibilities and the limits of the wood. Each of this wood’s quirks and
characteristics has an influence on the sound it will bring forth.” Ironically, it is the
cruelty of nature which shapes the wood so it can produce the right sound. For
the tree to survive in the harsh mountainous weather it must twist and bend to
allow for sunlight to reach it. This, plus “every [other] hardship the tree
experiences, make the roots go deeper and the structural fibers stronger.” These
best woods are the ones chosen for the violin. The craftsperson then carefully
seasons them for many years before creating the violin. (Read more: http://
www.wmpaulyoung.com/blog; Martin Schleske, KlingBilder, 2011, Random
House; and http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_construction_and_mechanics).
Schleske relates this to the seasoning people need for right living. People,
like trees, “. . . . have suffered staggering hardships and overwhelming winds in
their life . . . . Like the wood, we reveal our true selves during the small and great
ordeals of our lives. . .” (http://www.wmpaulyoung.com/blog). When someone or
something knocks on our life, it produces an audible response from the fibers of
our being. The sound it lets out determines whether or not our maker can
reshape our lives to produce melodious sounds.

This reshaping of our lives takes a lifetime at the hands of the Master. Even
after the violin maker gathers the wood for his final production, he must
painstakingly shape it into the instrument. That requires the right cutting and
molding that only a master can do. In this light, we must ask ourselves a
question. “Do I really own myself?” or, “Can I consistently make wise decisions
without the moderation of a higher power?”

D. Thompson works as a surgeon in Africa and founded the Pan African
School for Christian Surgeons. He wrote in Christian Mercy, Compassion,
Proclamation and Power, about one of the biggest surprises in his life. “That
was the day it dawned on me how incredibly much God loves people.” This fact
should not surprise us at all, but it does. As Christian believers, we know he
loves us but in many ways we act like we fear it and, recklessly, we pull from it.
We can only fully know his love when we give up ownership to our lives
and bodies. According to the Apostle Paul, this shift comes when God
recapitulates his redeeming work in us through the offering of our “. . . bodies as
living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship.”
(Romans 12:1 NIV). He transforms us by restoring our mind to its original
condition not suddenly but over time as we daily yield our lives (verse 2).

The Apostle Paul wrote he considered all the gains he made in life
garbage so he could obtain a righteous life not of his own making that comes
from keeping the law, “. . . but that which is through faith in Christ.” (Philippians
3:8 and 9). Although he admitted he had not attained it all, he pressed on.
(Verse 12). He said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his
resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Verses 10 and
11).

Only recent studies of the brain shows how it locks-in our thought
processes which govern our everyday behavior. Change in behavior, then, can
only come through reprogramming. (Read Escaping the Matrix by Gregory A.
Boyd and Al Larson). How did the Apostle Paul know our minds could be
renewed except by the direct inspiration of God? Only God can change the
pattern of our thinking to transform us into people who live by faith in him. He
says, ". . . my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in
anyone who turns [pulls] away." (Hebrews 10:38 NTL).

I play a little game with my 2-year-old grandson, whom I love dearly. I grab
hold of his hand and he pulls back and says to me, “Mine! Pull!”

Then, I say, “No, mine!” And we pull. The tug continues until I carefully let
go. I don't want him to get hurt. He staggers back or sits down and laughs.
How can I stop my grandson from doing what he wants? Obviously, in this
case, my strength works. Do I have this right, however, to control his behavior?
Since my daughter regularly asks me to babysit him, she lends me this right
particularly to moderate his temerarious activities.

During an outdoor play time one day, he belligerently chose to leave the
play area. I told him not to go there but he continued to push the boundary. I
went to him and took his hand to keep him from leaving and he pulled back and
said, “Mine! Pull!” He thought he could get away with his actions by playing our
little game. I told him, however, that he could not go up the steps.

He persisted so I said, “We will go back inside to see mommy if you do not
stop.” But he kept trying to leave. I knew if I did not stop him, he would go
beyond the area where I could keep him from danger.

I took his hand and started to lead him to the house to which he cried, “No,
Poppi!” I let him go and repeated my ultimatum. He started going back up the
steps. I, then, gently picked up my screaming little boy and carried him back into
the house where a new struggle proceeded. I had to keep him from running
outside, ignoring his plaintiff acts. Mommy eventually calmed him down.
I did not take any pleasure in this tug-of-war. It deeply pained me when I
saw the anger in his eyes as he pointed his accusing finger at me and he said
some gibberish words. What did they mean? I will never know; but, they meant
something to him. Someday, he may walk away from the loving training he
received as a child to pursue ungodly pleasure or gain.

That is not our desire at all. All our deep and unconditional love cannot stop him
from pulling himself outside the reach of our love.

O, how much those thoughts pain me. There will come a day when I will not
be able to pick him up to move him from his temerarious ways. He will decide
someday whether to follow the teaching of his youth or follow his own path.
Like everyone else, there will come a time when he will need to completely
surrender himself to God for divine transformation through a complete mind
makeover. I pray for him every day that he will fully turn his life over to God.

We all need God's makeover. He wants to do it. This want is expressed in
his unfailing love. God could not love us, if he forced us into the mold of his
desire. Notice, however, how much God does love us. He wants us to
experience everlasting life with him in heaven so much that out of unfailing love,
he gave his only Son to die for our sins. (John 3:16). If only the world's people
understood this. Yet, they can only know this through a new birth. (John 3:1-16).
This new birth understanding comes when they hear and positively respond to
the Holy Spirit anointed preaching of the ones God sends them. (Romans 10:13-
17). Knowing and experiencing God's supreme love-desire for us, however,
cannot reach those running from it or pulling against it.

Adults play this “I want what I want and I want it now” game all the time.
They ask, “What gives anyone the right to tell me I can't do what I want?”
This kind of human temerity with the the tendency to act foolhardily rises
out of Adam's rebellion in the garden. The Apostle Paul wrote through one man's
(Adam's) unwillingness to heed God's warning (Romans 5:19), sin fatally
contaminated the human mind. Jesus said this inherited self-defeated behavior
leads us away from his loving desire. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road
that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and
narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13,14 NIV).
And he said:

"Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is
like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the
streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did
not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears
these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish
man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great
crash." (Matthew 7:24-27).

Furthermore, in Revelations 2 and 3, he tells the Church to attend to what
the Spirit says to it when he challenges the healthiness of the seven churches
located in Asia. He leaves a warning with these words in 3:19-22:
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my
throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

I point again to God's call for us to listen to what he says. God wants
everyone to live abundantly within the framework of his provisions which come
out of his abundant possessions. (Philippians 4:19). When we follow him, we
gain, but when we choose our way, we lose. “For what will it profit a man if he
gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange
for his soul?” (Jesus, Matthew 16:26 NIV).

If we want to know how to live profitably in a godly way, we need listening
ears to hear what God has to say to us so we can follow Jesus. Like the violin
mastercrafter carefully builds and finishes his instrument to his and the rest of
the world's pleasure, God works in us to give us “. . . the desire and the power to
do what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:13 NLT).