Your love is a symphony

Now that I'm settling in back at school after a nice long winter holiday, I've finally found time to do some writing! Hi all, hope everything is well =] Tonight I have melodies on the mind, and I'm just going to go with it....

Music. It is often called the universal language, and rightly so! It is quietly hummed or loudly howled in the shower, rocked out to on road trips, passively enjoyed during the greatest of films, and echoed through symphony halls, auditoriums, churches, and cathedrals worldwide.

This my friends, is a very beautiful and epic piece of music:

We have Dvorak to thank for this. NEW WORLD SYMPHONY!!! Oh, how I wish this was played in mass! (I truly think God has this on his ipod. Ha. Haha.) Or how about THIS when we act like naughty/bad/sinful human beings? Ha! 

Here is some amazingly terrifying music:

And this, my dear pals, is a really great, wonderful, gorgeous, and arguably the best musical tool ever given to man:

Aaaaawwww yeaa. It's a cello. It makes the best music in the world. 

So, to get right to the point, everything I just told you is a giant lie. Yea, that's right. The pictures posted above are simply white pieces of paper with some black ink stamped onto them in a few distinct patterns. Or, if you are the picky argument-seeking type, you could argue that they are black pieces of paper with some white stains. But we won't go there. The only music these above pictures make is a crinkle, or maybe the muffled rub of a page turn. It's simply an instruction manual for music. Wooopdeefreakingdoo. AND! To make matters worse, the cello you see there, it's actually just a poor forsaken tree with some melted horse glue and metal stringies on top. Yesss. 

The point I'm trying to make is that the above objects aren't music. The only way they could possibly make music is with some form of movement (Duh, right?) A bow on the string, a conductor lifting his arms, the movement of air past vocal cords, fingers on strings, music requires movement. 

For Christians this is ridiculously important! We are called to strive for the impossible and to live radically different lives from the rest of the world. Think of it as an incredibly complex and difficult symphony, (and a super epic one at that!) It is ridiculous to say that with simply our instruction manual -the sheet music- we are achieving anything resembling music. Absolutely not! Likewise, while our movements can create beautiful sounds without the aid of written notes, an orchestra without some form music to read cannot possibly create a symphony. 

God has given us his word, the lives of many great saints, and inspiration all around us for our sheet music. He has given us our instruments. (God willing) we have healthy and able bodies with brains to reason and souls to feel and yearn. Put the together and we have...Shaazaaam! Movement! Stuff to do! Work! Verbs!

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, wash feet, pull in your nets, come follow me, take and eat, heal the sick. These are all commands of Jesus. Notice all of the verbs. You betcha that these all require some movement! So, does this mean that I need to have the busiest of lives, frantically doing Christ's work unceasingly? Not exactly. Huh?

You heard me. Ask any musician what makes music so, well, ... musical, and they'll most likely tell you this; rests. Periods of silence among the noise. This intentional act of silence is really an action, I suppose.  It's a time to retreat so to let the sound in itself have more effect, or perhaps in anticipation of the sound that is to come. 

Nature as well mimics this. For every heart beat there is a rest that follows, every single one. Energy lost is gained from adequate rest and preparedness for the work that is to come.  Nature's way of telling us to Be still and know that I am God? ...

I think so, yes.