The Power of Sound

Sound is at its core, energy being transmitted from one place to another.  It does this through waves of pressure.  With the right magnitude and frequency, the energy in sound can actually knock things over or shatter glass.  So clearly sound has power.  If you add order to sound, you get specific noises.  These noises can be arranged in patterns to create music, which could be argued to have a power of its own.

Words can be written on a page, but when we speak them aloud we add the power of sound to their meaning.  (I find it ironic that our modern society only honors things that are "in writing.")  Words are an idea, while speaking is an action.  The Genesis account describes God creating the universe merely by speaking.

When used well, words can communicate ideas and cause people to grow.  But words can also be damaging, both when they are true and in different ways when they are not.  Words can be used to control people, or to set them free.  Speaking words aloud usually magnifies their effect on the emotional level.

There is also a connection between worship and music here as well, but I don’t pretend to understand music in the slightest.  Many people have a powerful reaction to music, especially in the context of worship, and seeing the notes and lyrics written on the page doesn’t have nearly the same effect.  I am not usually particularly affected by music, so this phenomenon is something I witness more so than experience directly.

We see a similar effect in prayer, which at its core, is simply communication with God.  But we can combine that with the power of sound, by speaking prayers aloud.  Now I have always been a fan of saying my prayers silently, based on the idea that God can hear what I am thinking anyway.  I usually don't feel a need to bring other people into that dialog.  But by not verbalizing them, my silent prayers miss out on the potential power available by speaking them aloud.  I have seen this power at work, but I don’t understand why it works that way.

I have only recently begun to accept the idea that talking about things aloud has the potential to bring those things about, beyond the obvious practical results.  If I tell someone to do something, they hear me and do it.  If the same general principle is applied to God, who can always hear us, we find people’s speech having an affect on things they would otherwise have no control over.  I can see a variety of potential reasons why God would set things up this way, but I don't claim to understand the why, I am just starting by exploring the how.

It also makes you wonder how much power someone who is deaf is missing out on.  That may be why deafness is one of the first types of healings that take place in many evangelizing situations.  It is opening up someone to the power of God in a whole new way.  And as a primarily visual learner, I have probably undervalued the power of sound as well up to this point.  (Tell me about it;)

Pressure

I spent the first half of the week talking with a variety of different people from across the country, looking for projects to work on, and places to do them.  A number of other people with me were doing the same thing, looking for places to work.  The difference is that they are looking for ways to support themselves and their families, while I am simply looking for something interesting and meaningful to do with my time.  The contrasting levels of pressure we are under makes a world of difference on our outlook and approach.

I spent the second half of the week in Hollywood for the release of the movie I have been working on for the last four years.  While I want it to do well, the entire future of my career does not hang in the balance of the weekend's financial numbers.  My bosses on the other hand haven't been able to sleep for the last few days because they are so anxious about the process.  It is not just that they are afraid it will fail, but even on the positive side, if it really takes off, that will give them some exciting opportunities.

I also had the opportunity to describe our film-making process to a group of 200 industry people at a pre-screening.  While that is the largest group I have ever presented to, I was surprisingly relaxed and calm during the event.  The most challenging part for me was mingling with that crowd of strangers for an hour before the screening.  After the screening and presentation, I had no trouble interacting with the same crowd, because the context of who I was had been established.

It is interesting how the degree that you value or care about something has an exponential effect on the pressure and stress level experienced from that.  I personally feel much more stress associated with relationships than I do from anything connected with my job or career.  This is both because I have already been successful in my career, and because there is little else that I still want in that regard.  Those issues are related, but independent, because success doesn't necessarily preclude one from wanting more, but it does increase one's confidence.

Confidence plays a large role in how we respond to pressure.  So even if I still did have major goals I was pursuing in my career, I would not be nearly as stressed about reaching them, based on my track record so far.  But I still feel stressed from the pressure of other goals I would like to accomplish, because I am not as confident in my abilities in other aspects of life.

Commitments and Priorities

Commitment is really about priorities.  Committing to something is making two statements: this thing I am committing to is a high priority, and I will continue valuing it as a priority in the future.

Having priorities does not necessitate commitment.  That is the difference between a "relationship" and a marriage.  In my current context out at the camp I live at, that is the difference between being a resident volunteer and being a staff member.  I have the freedom to change my priorities at will, since I have very few commitments to maintain.

Our first commitment should be to God.  At no point should some other priority become higher, and at no point should that priority be lowered.  Marriage is usually regarded as the second highest commitment, as a covenant relationship.  Beyond that there are family, the church, and other people in general, as well as work, and service.

From a certain perspective I am one who avoids commitments, but that is because when I do actually commit to something, I have every intention of fulfilling it, no matter the cost.  This usually leads to most of my commitments having qualifiers, since I am very conscious of where things fit on the priority list, and I avoid placing things higher on that list than they belong.

For many years my career has been pretty high on that priority list, but it was never at the top.  I have never missed a major holiday family gathering, and definitely not for work.  Over the past year, I have slowly adjusted to placing "work" (specifically paying projects) lower on my list.  I am someone who nearly always "works" in one form or another, whether I am helping someone move, climbing tall objects, or editing videos.  There is no intrinsic reason to prioritize work that earns money above work that just helps other people.  I have been doing that for the last year or so, but that is beginning to change as I separate my identity from my career.

As another example, I have invested a lot of time into this blog, and have been quite consistent in my postings, but during my recent travels, the time to do so had not been readily available.  I still could have done it, at the expense of sleep, just to maintain my record, but commitment for its own sake its not intrinsically good.  Having a reputation for reliably following through on one's commitments is valuable, but we shouldn't maintain that reputation for our own pride.  While following through on commitments says a lot about a person's character, so do those things they don't do, in order to honor commitments higher on the list.  It really comes down to not making commitments that could eventually conflict with higher priorities.

Forgiveness and Justice

Forgiveness is the opposite of revenge or punishment.  It could be argued that forgiveness is unjust, because a violation of the rules or standards requires an opposite reaction to restore balance in a relationship.

“All true forgiveness is substitutionary because no one really forgives without bearing the consequences of the other person’s sin.” (Neil Anderson)

Revenge is restoring the balance by adding an equal amount of bad to the other side of the scale, while forgiveness restores the balance by offsetting the original bad with an equal amount of "good," without adding to the other side of the scale.  If we see "good" as unselfishness, this begins to make sense.  The more significant an offense is, the more "good" it will take to forgive it.  The more consequences that have to be borne by the forgiver, the harder it is to truly forgive.

When we look at this line of reasoning in light of the Gospel, the events that take place become much more logical.  If an all powerful God wanted to forgive his people, why couldn't he just do that at his whim?  Instead that act required suffering, bearing the consequences for mankind's sin.  Now God is the one who setup these rules and principles in the first place, so technically he could have just made things work differently in the first place, but as it stands, his actions serve as an illustration to mankind, beyond the direct purpose they fulfill.  If all that was required for God to forgive us was for the thought to cross his mind, we would not grow from that, or become more Christ-like, in the image of God.

It is interesting to see how this applies to forgiving oneself.  We bear the consequences of our own sin either way.  But forgiveness is a positive way, instead of a negative one, which is why it is an important step to bringing continuing negative cycles to an end.

Forgiving other people is the simplest application of this idea.  For example in order to forgive my parents for mistakes they made when raising me, I have to be willing to bear the consequences of those mistakes in my life, without constantly blaming them. (I am realizing nearly everyone "recovers" from their upbringing in one sense or another, because our parents are all human)  Forgiving others removes our grievance from there feet, and puts it at God's feet, and he is usually the only one that can really do something about it anyway.

Punishing versus Forgiving Yourself

Punishment is the opposite of forgiveness.  Punishment goes beyond the natural consequences that result from an unwise action.  It implies a level of punitive retribution.  This is frequently done for the satisfaction of the victim of that action.

I have been doing some reading recently, and the concept of the importance of forgiving yourself has come up repeatedly.  While I see the significance of that action, I am not sure if it is as simple as it sounds.  On the other hand, it was only last night that the idea of self-punishment occurred to me.   I have heard of it happening, but I had never really thought about it.  It is hard for me to relate to someone who feels the impulse to do this.

The first question that comes to mind is: if you don't forgive yourself, are you automatically punishing yourself.  I believe there is a middle ground on this one, so that may not be the main issue.  Punishing oneself would be more of an active response, than the passive option of withholding forgiveness.  So why do people do this?  It may result from the patterns they set when interacting with others, since people who punish themselves probably are the same ones who feel it necessary to punish those around them when they feel wronged.  If they are the victim of their own bad decisions, then maybe punishing themselves makes the victim side of them fell better.

This is not to be confused with preventative actions, in a proactive attempt to avoid making the same unwise decision in the future.  If there is a pattern that appears to consistently lead to the same negative result, then doing things to avoid that pattern from repeating would not necessarily be punishment, even if they are unpleasant.  Neither would doing something unpleasant that had the result of righting the original wrong.  Returning something you stole would not be punishment, while paying back more beyond that could be.

I was looking at a person as a whole in the above examples, but it could also be seen as a conflict between different parts of us.  Our body doesn't always do what our mind wants it to, whether it is because we aren't strong enough, or too tired, or what ever else.  Pain could be your body punishing your mind for what it was ordered to do.  But if your mind (the aspect of your personhood that you exert the most conscious control over) starts to punish your body in return, that is a problem.

So the take away at the end of the day is this: while with God's help we may be able to overcome our sinful nature, our bodies are still weak, (as are our minds from a certain perspective) so we will still fail on occasion.  While it is not always easy to forgive ourselves for our own weaknesses, punishing ourselves is a ridiculous proposition.  And rarely is punishing others going to be a wise course of action either.  I will try to better examine forgiveness in the near future, especially as it applies to ourselves.

Equality in Heaven

Equality-to be the same in value, is an interesting concept to examine.  Here on earth, our status as Americans greatly influences our idea of equality.  Our culture plays lip service to the idea that all men are created equal, but primarily values and worships those who are rich or famous.

The Bible tells us not to judge others, which infers a level of equality.  But does that equality extend to heaven?  When we die, Christians will clearly not be equal to non-believers, that is widely accepted.  But there are a number of passages in the Bible that support the idea that not everyone in heaven will be equal.  That kind of bothers me at a certain level, and doesn't seem "right" but I don't know why not.  If God rewards those who are seeking out him and his Kingdom, then that seems well justified.  Our American perspective probably makes this harder to accept than it would have been for those living under kings and nobles.  This may be why we rarely hear it expanded upon in modern books and sermons.

While at a certain essential level, all people are equal in God's eyes, we are obviously not completely equal in every way.  We clearly enter the fallen world in many different situations and statuses.  And then the results of our choices continue to make us all even less equal as life goes on.  So why would things suddenly reset when we die?  Admittedly all of our worldly possessions become an equal zero, but the characteristics of our soul still exist: maturity, patience, generosity, trust, love, etc.  If everything about us was reset to be the same, there would be little reason to be concerned about much in this life as long as we discovered "salvation" before we died.  But there are many verses from Jesus in the Gospels, and Paul's letters, as well as many other places throughout the Bible, that address how our actions and generosity store up treasures in heaven.  This places the idea of sanctification in an interesting light.  While no man will achieve perfection in this life, those little successes and failures do matter, both to God and to our eternal future.

I have been pondering this, and came up with an interesting illustration: it is like playing Settlers of Catan.  The game has two phases, the initial setup rounds, and then the series of turns that could go on forever if you set the set the victory score high enough.  The initial setup rounds are relatively short, (depending on who you play with) but have a strong influence on how the rest of the game plays out.  Everyone starts out looking at the same game board, and the only variable differentiating their opportunities is who goes first.  Where players decide to commit their initial assets is up to them, but they will have to live with the results of those decisions for the rest of the game.

In the same way, at a certain level, our life on earth is just the (relatively short) "setup phase" for eternity.  Our decisions in this life will affect that future, and not just whether we end up in heaven or hell.  Just because we will all be equal before God, doesn't mean that we will all be equal to each other.

Why Aren't They Called the Vegetables of the Spirit?

Last week, I was doing some research on fruits and vegetables, and made a few interesting discoveries.  The vegetables we eat are usually single season crops, while most fruits come from plants (fruit trees) that continue to grow and mature from year to year.  There are exceptions, like strawberries, but in general, growing fruit takes a longer period of time to invest in nurturing the plants that it grows on.

Now the Bible makes multiple references to believers bearing fruit, and being recognized by that fruit.  Paul describes a variety of positive characteristics as Fruits of the Spirit.  Good fruit should be seen in the lives of believers.  The symbol of fruit was probably chosen, not just because it is nutritious and tastes good, but because it represents the harvest from a long-term commitment and endeavor.  The original audience of those passages would have been much more conscious of those unique characteristics of fruit, because they would have been more involved in that agricultural process.  Modern readers see fruits and vegetables as similar because they are both found in the same section of the grocery store.

The comparison between believers and fruit trees can be taken pretty far.  Both require someone to cultivate a decent environment for them to grow.  It takes a while before they really begin to produce good fruit.  That fruit can eventually lead to more fruit trees sprouting up around them.  There are many different types of fruit trees, and different types of fruit trees can be grafted together, to combine the strengths of each variant.  While an expert can tell what type a tree is by looking at the tree itself, the easiest way that even a casual observer can tell the type, is by examining the fruit it is bearing.

Pruning is usually necessary for most fruit trees in order to maximize the yield of fruit.  This involves cutting away and removing parts of the tree that are dead or sapping energy from the production of good fruit.  But this is not just a process of cutting the tree down to size; each cut must be carefully made as to not inhibit future growth.  Fruit trees can live for a long time, and produce a lot of fruit, but they do eventually age and die.

So what kind of fruit are we bearing?  Other person bearing different types of fruit is okay, but the Bible also mentions bad fruit to watch out for.  Do we recognize when God is pruning in our lives, and while it may be uncomfortable at the moment, how it helps us grow?

Drunk in The Spirit

While there is nothing intrinsically evil about alcohol, drunkenness is clearly condemned in the Bible.  There isn't much debate about that, and the principle is frequently extended to include the influence off other drugs.  The place where this gets interesting is when we examine the idea of being "drunk in the spirit."  For the uninitiated, this is described as when the presence of God is perceived so strongly by someone, that they act similar to people under the influence.  This may explain events like 1 Kings 8:11.

This phenomenon is something I have never experienced myself, but I have witnessed it on many occasions.  While I have no idea what it feels like, it is clear to me that there is something to it.  Good or evil, it is definitely real, but what is it, and where does it come from?

Those who defend it as a natural gift from God, through the Holy Spirit, site the events of Acts 2 as Biblical support for the idea.  It usually manifests as a "happy drunk" state, frequently accompanied by laughter, which is usually regarded in other cases to be a healthy and beneficial reaction.  It is similarly associated with joy, which is portrayed, especially in the New Testament, as an exceedingly desirable condition.

But this has to be balanced against verses that condemn drunkenness, and command sober-minded behavior.  Control over one's actions, and responsible accountability are principles found throughout the Bible.  This leads many to believe that God would not condone the behavior exhibited by those who are "drunk in the Spirit."  This implies that the source of that effect must not be from the Holy Spirit, but from demonic forces who have deceived the participants with their masquerade.

The key question becomes, are the Biblical warnings against drunkenness limited to alcohol and drugs, or do they include all similar behavior, whatever the root cause?  "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit," (Ephesians 5:18)  This verse contrasts one state with the other, implying that there are similarities between the two.  But "filled with the Spirit" is a very vague term, which could mean a whole spectrum of possible things.  The "Glory of God" is the same way, in that it can be interpreted as a theoretical concept, or a physical presence in the natural world, in the form of a cloud or fire, etc.

God created the world, and everything in it, including those things that are abused, and used for evil purposes.  One school of thought is that all things have a potentially positive and constructive purpose.  Opium is sold on the street as heroin, but used in hospitals as morphine.  Weapons can be used either to oppress or liberate people.  So if the condition of being drunk or "high" was created by God, while its purpose has clearly been twisted and misused in many cases, what was its original intent?  Is there a positive and acceptable purpose for this condition?

There is also the question of why can't I feel the slightest hint of what others are experiencing in those cases, but the answer to that could be similar to why alcohol has no effect on me: because my mind has a death grip on my body and actions.  That strength can be a good thing in many cases, but I have to make sure I am capable of relinquishing that level of control to God when the occasion arises.