Creation and Sound Waves

I took a hiatus from writing this blog because I was broken.  From the moments I sat typing my last post to this moment typing this one, my world collapsed a bit.  A lot.  Not externally, though there was brokenness there, as there always is in life.  But internally, from those moments to this one, I have been a pile of rubble, and it has been impossible for me to face this blank page without being reminded of the start of a terrible collapsing within me from which I'm still rebuilding.

And yet here I am, and I can say that I am writing for one person only right now.  A lot of things in life may be coincidences, but the connection between my last post and my need to post this one, and all near future ones, is no coincidence.  It's God.

I want to keep this simple.  Life is complicated, and I tend to make it even more so with way too many words.  That previous sentence?  I tried to make it like 10 words and two commas longer than it needed to be.  But honestly, I don't have lengthy explanations for what I'm trying to say tonight, because there are some things we can't explain.  We are silly humans, and there is a heck of a lot of stuff that we just don't know.

I do not in any way understand creation. I know a few things, all of which simply expose the even more things I don't know.

What I know about creation is that it is an incredible thing.  Somehow, planets have formed, stars have formed, our world has formed, and each one of us beautiful little humans has formed, so intricately, so complexly, so perfectly in a vast open space of the universe.

Have you seen the video of just how tiny a human is in connection to the universe?  I mean, truly, the magnitude of the universe in comparison to what we consider our whole world is astounding.  And our own individual worlds - our personal circle of people, relatives, experiences, cities - are just the tiniest portion of even that, and yet they mean everything to us.  We know deep down that it's right that they mean everything to us.  The amount of love we can hold for something that isn't even a blip on the surface of the sun - that amount of love is itself even greater than the size of the sun.  How can we ever wrap our heads around that, and yet we collectively sense that our love for these things should be immense.

My faith says that an even greater love than I have ever known spoke, and by speaking created the sun, created my world, created me.  In fact, other faiths have a similar creation story.  I didn't give that much thought, until I saw this video:

That blows my mind.  I've dug further since seeing that video a year or two ago, and it continues to amaze me to witness sound - something I cannot see, cannot touch, cannot grasp - to witness that sound moving and creating in ways that so are so intricate, and so reflective of the world around me.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form ...

And God said, Let there be light ...

And God said, Let there be a firmament [heaven] ...

And God said ...

And God said ...

And God said ...

And God said ...

And God said ...

And God said ...

And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.  - Genesis 1

I can get scared a lot for someone who professes to have a lot of faith.  And I don't think that's unreasonable.  Because there's a lot we just don't know about life and death.  Unknown things can be intimidating.

But when I'm scared, I think about this video.  When I begin to doubt that God is real, that there is something supernatural above this world I know, I think about creation.  About the shape of every unique snowflake taking form like this sand - something did that.  Someone did that.  And it is not a coincidence.

I don't know what happens in that great unseen space where sound waves move and create.  But I know that space is there, doing powerful things beyond the scope of my vision.  And it helps me, a little, to be reminded of that.  God's spirit is unseen, but that doesn't mean it isn't there, moving, creating, doing powerful things beyond the scope of my vision.  And that giant love I have the capacity to feel?  That overwhelming love for my tiny little blip of the universe?  That's my spirit, and it is so much more than a blip.  It goes far beyond what I can imagine.  So does yours.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." - John 1

[To see the original sound waves video with the actual sound frequencies instead of the music, click here.  Please TURN DOWN the volume on your computer, and do NOT use headphones when viewing this video.]

Brave & Say

This wasn't the direction I planned to go with my second post, but my three year old has been singing the song "Brave" by Sara Bareilles over and over (and over, and over, and over ...) for several days straight, and I just can't escape it.  So I've decided to embrace.

I mentioned previously that the way in which a work of art holds value to an individual may not be the same as how it originally held value to the artist.  Similarly, the same work of art can be valued on a number of different planes simultaneously - when listening to a song in the context of a breakup, you hear it one way, in the context of the birth of a child, you hear it differently, and all the while you may still be able to hear the social message it was originally written to express.

It's important not to take away from the intended message of this particular song.  The obvious messages are significant, and absolutely in line with biblical truth in their own right.  Leaving those in place, I think it's possible to shift our ears to a spiritual filter and hear another layer too.  What if, as you listen, the lyrics are heard as God's words to you about your relationship with Him?  Try it:

When is the last time you really prayed?  I mean the kind of prayer where your heart pours out everything, baring your thoughts good and bad to a God who's only desire is to know you, to see all the parts of who you are?  I know I'm not alone in feeling trapped underneath the things I won't say to Him, living in a metaphorical dark cave of solitude that I've made through my own silence, especially when it comes to what I'm honestly thinking of God Himself.  Yet I hear Him in these lyrics calling me out - "Let the words fall out, stop holding them in, say what you want to say so I can move towards you in love.  There's nothing you can say that I can't handle - I want to see all of you."

Being a 30-something, I personally can't think of Sara Bareilles' lyrics without hearing John Mayer's "Say" in my head, and actually, that song continues this theme of God pressing us to speak to Him openly, vulnerably, without reservation:

Maybe today's the day to take the battles we're fighting in our heads and hash them out with God boldly, honestly, without fear.

"Even if your hands are shaking and your faith is broken ... say what you need to say."