The Sound of Life

I haven't written anything lately because most of my blogging has been centered around a youth / young adult conference we are leading November 16-17 with Skyler & Kim Walker-Smith.  For more info click here. ....I believe that our lives have a sound.  Sometimes a life sounds like a brilliant philharmonic orchestra.  All sections of the orchestra are playing the same sheet of music.  It thunders.  It lights.  It nestles upon the spirit of a man, the seat of emotions and desires.  Delicate.  Beautiful.  Divine.  These sections of life, when in harmony, produce a sound compelling to every individual.  It invites us doesn't it?  You remember that moment in your favorite movie when the music was tugging on your emotions and inserting you into the story.  Laughter broke forth.  Tears rolled down.  Gratitude swelled within.  Curiosity arose.

The orchestra of life is made up of Strings, Brass, Percussion & Woodwinds.  These instruments of humanity  can create a life rich with sound or a disastrous moment of tragedy, long to be forgotten.

The string section, our relationships, are held in beautiful tension between emotional energy and time, releasing a delightful sound.  The brass section, the inner life of thoughts, choices & meditations, blasts a sound soothing to the soul.  The drum section, the spiritual life, booms as the mallets of God's grace play upon the heart.  The woodwinds.  We can't forget the woodwinds.  They are those circumstances and moments when God's spirit blows across the reed of uncertainty, generating a sound illuminating hope to a darkened soul.

There are other times in life when it sounds as if every one of these sections in life is playing their own sheet of music.  They are out of sync.  As such, it's not a sound inviting people to "feel" the rhythm of life, but a sound that pierces the ear and drives people away.

We want our lives to be the first of these two scenarios, but it's not always that way.  I believe God hears a magnificent sound regardless of our own hearing.  But that's what grace usually does.  It hears differently.  It plays these delicate instruments differently.  It leads the orchestra of our life differently.

"Performance, legalism and failure" often grab the conductor's baton and attempt to lead these sections of life.  Beloved, this trifecta of defeat was never designed to lead sections of our life.  There is no better conductor for your life than Holy Spirit.  He grabs the baton of grace and supernaturally works all things for good, so that your life is a poetic sound of grace, triumph and abundance.  Sure, our circumstances are playing a different sound.  That will never change.  But which sound do you believe God wants from you?  The sound of grace or the sound of "never measuring up?"

This is an important question.  It frames how you hear everything else.  I know when the sound of my life sound flat and off-key I can read the scriptures that way.  I don't hear Jesus as loving.  I hear him as impatient.  I don't see grace.  I see a God that has to love us, but He does so out of duty, not desire.  Friends, it's very important that you have ears to hear.  Jesus instructed us to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.

I believe he is saying that our lives were designed to release the sound of grace.  If you don't like the sound of your life, then ask Holy Spirit to come and tune your heart.  He will grab the baton of grace and things will be different.