Sympathetic resonance and human heart strings

piano“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 ESV).

“Sympathetic resonance or sympathetic vibration is a harmonic phenomenon wherein a formerly passive string or vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness.” – Wikipedia

I have been a lifelong student of two pursuits: music and theology. In the case of the first, I have come to realize that I have more passion than ability. While in the case of the second, I have found my talents and passions are more aligned. So, I have spent the last 25 years or more focusing more on the study of God’s Word and less on musical pursuits. Yet, my love of music often colors my understanding of theology. I feel that I’m in good company on this. After all, David was an accomplished harpist and song writer before becoming king of Israel.

It was David who wrote, and no doubt sang, about “delighting” in God and finding his heart’s “desires” met in Him. This alignment between God’s heart and David’s is described by God Himself  when He said, “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will” (Acts 13:22 ESV).

David’s heart strings were in tune with the Lord’s. He desired what God desired. Not perfectly. Not wholly. He was still a sinner. But David’s heart was sensitive to the beat of God’s. There was a kind of “sympathetic resonance” between their hearts.

Now, “sympathetic resonance” is not a theological term. It is a musical one. When I play the guitar or piano, I am aware of this phenomenon, so I deaden the unplayed string(s) that I don’t want to ring. On the guitar this is done with the hand. On the piano, there are dampers on each string that deaden the string unless its key is depressed or the piano’s sustain pedal is used.

As I’ve been studying the desires and motivations of the human heart as taught in Scripture over this past week, I kept seeing the unbelieving heart being referred to as “dead, hardened, veiled, blind,” and other such descriptions. Reading this over and over an image of human heart strings came to mind. These strings are dead to the heart of God. They have been “dampened” by sin, so that they only ring when plucked by the fallen desires of the flesh, the world, and the temptations of Satan. They are in disharmony with the heart of God. Their desires are not God’s.

But when we believe in Christ and confess Him as Lord, we receive a heart transplant. We get a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26). The sin that once “dampened” our heart’s strings is removed. Now, when the heart of God booms with love and passion, the believer’s heart-strings ring in “sympathetic resonance” with God’s. Our hearts are tuned to His. We love what He loves and hate what He hates.

It is our heart, our affections, that motivate us to action. When our hearts are dead to God, they resonate with desires and pursuits from this fallen world. We struggle and strive for things that are light and temporary. But when are hearts are made alive to God, they are moved to action for the weighty and eternal things of God.

Jonathan Edwards called the affections of the human heart “the spring of all motion” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections). He said a world without these “affections” would be “motionless and dead.” It is the condition of the human heart and its affections that determine its pursuits, be they good or evil.

The Bible teaches us that God loves the lost and the least of these. He loves mercy and justice. His heart is for the fatherless, the widow and the sojourner. He has compassion for the poor, the sick, the homeless, and those in chains. As we read Scripture we learn more and more about what God loves and what He hates. As we study these, we may become aware of a stirring in our hearts for certain themes.

God has made each of us unique. When our hearts are made new, they are tuned to a certain pitch. All of God’s loves and hates will affect ours, but because He has made us for a specific purpose, certain of His affections will really make our hearts sing. For instance, to one God may give the spiritual gift of evangelism and along with that gift, a heart for the lost, especially those who have never heard. This person will burn for missions. They will care for other ministries, but their zeal will be for the mission field. To another, God may give the same gift of evangelism, but a passion for the fatherless. This person’s passion will point and energize their gift towards another target. They will do evangelism, but it will be focused on children, specifically those without fathers.

God is at work in our world. His heart beats with righteous passion. How does the beating of His heart cause yours to vibrate with passion and zeal? Find out. Because He wants our heart strings to ring in sympathetic resonance with His.

Shaped for Significance

“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something” (Psalm 139:13-15 Msg).

We started a new sermon series last Sunday called “Shaped for Significance.” Our hope is that during this 36-day emphasis we can grow in our understanding and response to God’s unique “shape” and purpose for our lives.

The word “shaped” is used in the Message translation of Psalm 139 to describe how God made us. It is also the word that Pastor Rick Warren has used as an acronym to describe the different elements that come together to help determine our life’s purpose. The acronym S.H.A.P.E. is:

  • S – Spiritual Gifts (God-given talents given to believers)
  • H – Heart (What we are passionate about)
  • A – Abilities (Abilities and talents we have naturally)
  • P – Personality (Introvert/extrovert, feeler/thinker, etc.)
  • E – Experiences (The life experiences we have)

These five elements fit together like pieces of a puzzle to form the way God has uniquely shaped each one of us for His service. And as each one of us fulfills our unique role, we are like puzzle pieces that make up the whole body of Christ, which is the church.

This coming Sunday we are talking about the “S” which is for “spiritual gifts.” The apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the church at Corinth, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed” (1 Corinthians 12:1 ESV). Like Paul, we don’t want the members of our church to be “uninformed” about spiritual gifts. We want to learn about the gifts that God has given us in the Holy Spirit to edify His church and to glorify His Name in the world.

Will you join us as we take the SHAPE challenge?

#SHAPEDCHALLENGE: 36 Days to Understanding and Responding to God’s Unique Purpose for Your Life!

  • Hear the 6 sermons to learn
  • Attend a weekly Community Group to deepen understanding
  • Read the daily readings to prayerfully apply
  • Do the weekly online SHAPE assignments 
  • Be prepared to respond to God’s unique call 

My annual appointment with Jesus

IMG_7345“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them” (Matthew 28:16 NKJV).

I started going “away” for an annual retreat at the end of the year around 15 years ago. I have found it to be one of the wisest practices in my life. It gives me uninterrupted time to reflect on the past year and to reset my sights on God’s calling for the next.

It also gives me time to study the Bible and listen for the Lord’s voice for myself, my family, and our church. I don’t want to lead an unexamined and haphazard life. Neither do I want to have those under my care following an aimless shepherd. Since I’m not wise enough to bear the weight of this responsibility, I “retreat” from the world’s influence in order to “advance” in the Lord’s wisdom and power.

I am thankful for a wife that understands this necessity for spiritual renewal. She fully supports me in my desire to spend an extended time alone with God (She takes this time to be with God too). I am also thankful for a church like WCC that encourages me to take these times away in order to be alone with Jesus.

It seems to me no accident that the timing of the “appointment” that Jesus made with His disciples to pull away to a mountain to meet with Him was just prior to His giving them the Great Commission:

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV).

As the disciples “went away” from Jerusalem to the countryside of Galilee, up into the mountains, they left behind the distractions of the city and meeting with Jesus, they received His command. Coming down the mountain with fresh fire and clear marching orders from their Master, they began to preach the gospel message that turned the world upside down for Him.

I didn’t retreat to a mountain, but I have found a beach that is fairly unpopulated this time of the year. I came here to keep my annual appointment to meet with Jesus. I’m praying for fresh fire and clear marching orders too.

So, I’m keeping my annual week-long appointment with Jesus at the end of 2013. Now, have I mentioned the other daily, monthly, and quarterly “appointments” that He has invited me to keep in 2014?

Going over to Bethlehem

IMG_4893“When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us'” (Luke 2:15 ESV).

Robin and I had the privilege of visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem this past summer while touring in Israel.

The church was originally built in 327 AD by Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I. The church sits over the grotto that early Christians believed to be the place where Christ was born. Early Christian writers Justin Martyr (c.100-165 AD) and Origen (c. 185-254 AD) attest to this as the location of the manger in Bethlehem.

The original building was destroyed by fire in the Samaritan revolt in 556 AD. It was rebuilt in 565 AD by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It survived the invasion of the Persians in 614 AD, but fell into disrepair after the invasion of the Turks in 1244 AD. The roof was rebuilt and the church repaired in 1480 AD by a combined effort of King Edward IV of England, who supplied the lead for the work, the Kingdom of Burgundy supplied the wood and the Republic of Venice, the labor.

IMG_4916Visiting the Church of the Nativity, we saw that the church has again fallen into disrepair. According to our tour guide, one of the problems is that the building is shared by three different Christian sects: the Catholics, the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians, which often can’t agree on who should be responsible for the upkeep of the building. Add to this the political complexities of the church being located in an area of Israel that is now under control of the Palestinian Authority and the future of this 1500 year old building is at risk.

Even the city of Bethlehem is at risk. Once a city made up of 70% Arab Christians, the city has been separated from Israel by a security wall and its resident’s dependence on Christian tourism has been greatly hampered. We heard many Arab Christians despair of the way the world’s Christians have seemingly forgotten them.

IMG_4908Yet, there has been some good news recently concerning the Church of the Nativity. As strange as it may seem, the Palestinian Authority has helped broker a deal with the three Christian sects, and repairs on the roof have finally begun. The Palestinians have raised millions for its repair and in spite of political resistance, they finally received recognition for the church to be a UNESCO World Heritage site.

And just in time too. Just a couple of weeks ago the Middle East was hit by one of the most powerful storms in a century, dumping several inches of snow on Bethlehem. The storm caused some leaks at the Church, but the water damage was relatively minor, thanks to the cooperative venture already underway to repair the basilica’s roof.

Warning sign at checkpoint entering Bethlehem
Warning sign at checkpoint entering Bethlehem

“David Nour, a Palestinian Christian who lives in Bethlehem, praised the efforts to salvage the church, but said that without jobs and the ability to traverse Israeli checkpoints, the tiny community of West Bank Christians — whose numbers have been decimated by emigration over the decades — will eventually disappear, leaving only the churches” (Huffington Post).

And that would be the real loss in Bethlehem– not the loss of this ancient basilica built in the city of Christ’s birth– but the loss of the true church, the members of the body of Christ.

IMG_4963Yet, there is hope in Bethlehem. As the news of the Church of the Nativity being repaired is heard, there is also good news that there is a movement among Palestinian Muslims considering the claims of Christ. While I was there, I met some of them. And just as Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so these new believers are being born again in the city of Christ’s birth.

Do the opposite

6a00d83524c19a69e20128766651c4970c-320wi“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV).

I started watching the sitcom “Seinfeld” only after it went into syndication. I guess the daily dose of reruns finally got me interested.

If you know anything about the show, you know that the character played by Jason Alexander, is an inept, self-absorbed, all around loser named “George.” Except in one episode– in this installment, George decides to do the opposite of what he would normally do in every situation. In a hilarious 30 minute story line, George finally gets the girl, becomes popular, gets promoted, etc. Apparently, when George does the opposite of his character’s nature, everything turns to gold.

In our consumer culture today we’ve turned Christmas into a frenzied time of spending and going into debt. The more we spend, the more unhappy we are with Christmas. In fact, the more we spend, the more unhappy we seem to be, period. In a recent survey, Americans ranked above every 3rd world country in the incidence of clinical depression. It seems that the more we spend, the more depressed we get.

Perhaps we should start doing the opposite. What’s the antidote to greed? What’s the therapy for spending?

Giving. That’s the antidote. That’s the therapy. Instead of doing what the rest of Americans are doing, do the opposite. Stop spending and start giving.

Do the opposite this Christmas. Spend less so that you can give more. That’s what God did when He gave us Jesus. That’s what Christmas is all about.

(This entry is a reprint from a previous blog I wrote in 2009.)

Don’t let the Grinch steal your Christmas!

Grinch“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:2 ESV).

Now, before you panic and stop reading. We’re not trying to throw a “Grinch” in your Christmas. Neither are we trying to steal your Christmas joy. In fact, we hope to convince you that by spending less this Christmas you and your family can actually enjoy more margin in your life. More margin for time together, more resources to share with others, and a more and greater sense of satisfaction too!

We’re spending less at my house again this year. I’ve asked our family to limit themselves to $10 gifts and to try and make them, rather than buy them, if possible. Robin, has been busy making homemade gifts for a couple of months now. We’ve followed this practice for the past few years and it has made a huge difference. It has caused us, our kids and our grandkids to focus more on the story of Jesus and it has freed up more time and resources so that we have more to give to others.

We’re also challenging our church family to spend less again this year too. Many of them don’t need any convincing. They have already learned the joy of spending less on themselves in order to give more to others.

When we spend money and go into debt buying things we can’t afford, we turn Christmas into a very unhappy and ultimately, dissatisfying season. After all the labor at shopping and spending, we often find ourselves feeling exhausted, empty and overwhelmed, especially when the credit card bills arrive.

We’re spending less, not because we’re stingy, but because we want to spend more on:

  • Reflecting on the Christmas story
  • Slowing down to ponder and worship
  • Enjoying fellowship with friends and family
  • Giving to those in need in our community
  • Sharing God’s story with the nations through our Advent Conspiracy offering

Someone has defined worship as “pulling our affections off our idols and putting them on God.” If we’re going to have more time to worship the Babe of Bethlehem, then we’ve got to stop spending so much time waiting in line at the Walmart.

“Why spend money and labor on that which does not satisfy?” The Lord asked the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah.

I think He still poses the same question to us today.

Who will win the battle for your worship?

Advent Conspiracty (2013)“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11 ESV).

The word “worship” comes from the Middle English, “weorthscipe,” literally meaning to “ascribe worth.”

We were created to worship. From dandelions to dinosaurs, no other creature but man has the capacity for worship. We have a God-given desire for it. So, we’re going to spend our worship on something. It’s not a question of whether we will worship, it’s a question of what and how we will worship.

Worship might be described in two parts:

  1. Recognizing someone or something’s worth.
  2. Giving it or them what they’re worth.

When the Magi traveled from the East looking for the one “born King of the Jews,” they first encountered His counterfeit, the usurper Herod the Great. This half-Jew, half-Idumean took the throne that never belonged to him and demanded the worship of a people that belonged to God. He even “super-sized” the Jewish Temple to move the focus from God to his own “greatness.”

I’m sure the Magi were confused by the contrast between the gold and glamour of Herod’s palace and the humble house that they found in Bethlehem. Yet their pursuit for the true king won out. They followed the star. They were overjoyed as they fell on their faces, worshiped, and presented their treasures to Jesus.

We still have a choice between worshiping King Herod or King Jesus. There is still a battle between this world’s kingdom and the kingdom of heaven for our worship.

This Christmas, why not join the Advent Conspiracy? The word advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming.” The season of Advent has been celebrated by Christians for centuries as a way to prepare and remember that Christ has come and is coming again. The idea of an “Advent conspiracy” is that we would go against what the consumer culture of this world has made of it and instead remember the real reason for the season.

Who will win the battle for your worship? Let’s focus less on giving presents and more on celebrating His Presence during this Advent season.

F.A.T. from Thanksgiving

-f7e7e2aca269ed08“Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty” (Acts 6:3 ESV).

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39 ESV).

Are you feeling fat from Thanksgiving? The holiday, I mean. Not the actual act of giving thanks to God.

Christmas-vacation-dinnerMany of us will feel fat during the holidays. Fat from too much turkey, too much shopping, too much spending and even too much time with… your brother-in-law (think the Griswolds). As Americans, we have trouble doing anything in moderation. We tend to eat, spend and consume… too much.

But there is a fullness that God loves to see in us, a filling that makes us F.A.T. in a way that overflows with life and joy. There is a fullness that comes from living a life of thanksgiving, a life that is marked by three spiritual attributes (F.A.T.):

  • F – Faithful – Dependable, reliable, trustworthy. God is looking for one who He can trust as a conduit of His grace. A steward who faithfully uses God’s gifts of time, talent and treasure for the Kingdom of Heaven.
  • A – Available – One who shows up when needed. God cares more about our availability than our ability. He made us, so He can give us ability, but He allows us the freedom to choose whether we use those abilities for Him.
  • T – Teachable – This is about being humble and easily corrected. God is looking for one who will be quick to obey and also quick to repent when wrong.

When the apostles sought men who would serve God and His people to lead in the feeding of the hungry and guarding the unity of the fellowship, they looked for men that were full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom and faith.

God is still looking for F.A.T. followers. They are the kind of followers that He can trust to let His Spirit flow to and through them to others.

 

Against the FLOW of Black Friday

Black-FridayYou will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others” (2 Corinthians 9:11-13 ESV).

black-friday-shopping-620km111612-1363291018Next Friday is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving day that retailers begin their Christmas shopping season in earnest. Many even begin their “Black Friday” sales early, starting on Thanksgiving Day in their pursuit of the consumer’s dollar. This shopping day represents one of the top three sales days of the year for most retailers along with Christmas Eve and December 26th.

blackfridayBlack Friday has become a national obsession for many Americans. The really committed Black Friday shoppers camp outside of stores like Best Buy, Target and Toys-R-Us, to be first in line when the doors of these retailers open. They do this to get the best deals on this year’s PS4, XBox, Barbie or Furby. Some even miss Thanksgiving turkey with their families while camping for days in advance of Black Friday outside their favorite store. Black Friday shoppers are willing to sacrifice a lot to compete for their desired advertised item.

The apostle Paul talks about another way to celebrate Thanksgiving. He wrote a letter to the very wealthy and gifted church in the city of Corinth about a need in Jerusalem. A famine had struck the land of Israel and he was raising money to help feed the hungry. He challenged the Corinthians to go against the “flow” of their culture to spend on themselves and instead to “overflow” in generosity toward others, and so offer thanksgiving to God.

He said that their “submission” of this generous thanksgiving gift would come out of their “confession” of Christ’s gospel. In other words, their generosity would be proof of their confession of faith. It would be evidence of what they really believed.

The word “generosity” in the Greek is rich with meaning. It includes the idea of living a life of simplicity in order to give more. One Bible commentator translates it as “unworldly simplicity.”

Do you want to go with the flow of the world? Or do you want to “overflow” with the radical generosity of Christ? How you and your family answer this question will reveal a lot about what you really believe.

Experiencing FLOW

Flow - Idea 6-06“Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38 ESV).

“Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8 NIV).

“Flow is… being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost” (Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago, Finding Flow).

Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-high-ee), is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of positive psychology. “Positive psychology” focuses on improving human strengths in contrast to more traditional psychology which tends to focus on human psychosis. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi says that he has devoted his life to the study of what makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled. His research led him to a metaphor to describe what several of his respondents described as being “carried away by a current, everything moving smoothly without effort.” He called this level of living “flow.”

Perhaps it is similar to what athletes sometimes call being “in the zone.” Or what students of peak performance refer to it as working out of your “sweet spot.” Csikszentmihalyi may have been the first to describe this concept in Western psychology, but as he himself readily acknowledges he was not the first to discover the concept.

This psychological theory of flow reminds me of another kind of “flow” that Jesus spoke of over 2,000 years ago. He said that those who believed in Him would have “rivers of living water” that would “flow” out from within them to others.

As a Christ-follower, I believe in a Creator who made each of us with a unique purpose and destiny in mind. I believe that our deepest satisfaction and fulfillment is discovered when we live according to that calling, that design.

Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as an “optimal experience,” wherein one’s skill level at a task and its challenges are at their peak alignment. I think his observations are brilliant. Yet, they don’t come close to describing the joyous ecstasy of “freely receiving” and “freely giving.” that Jesus offers.

Perhaps Olympic runner Eric Liddell comes closer to describing this kind of spiritual state of flow in the movie Chariots of Fire when he said, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”

The pleasure of flow that Jesus offers is a shared pleasure— Ours and God’s. For Liddell it was running, for me it happens sometimes when I’m preaching, sometimes when I’m playing the guitar, sometimes when I’m in an engaging spiritual conversation with a friend or a seeker. This feeling of transcendence comes over me as I seem to become one with the task and with the One who made me for it. It’s better than sleep or food or play. It comes from being fully engaged in doing the very thing for which I was created.

Jesus often described His own state of flow, saying things like “My Father never stops working, so why should I? … I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” (John 5:17, 19 NLT).

When his parents couldn’t find the twelve year old Jesus, he said, “Why did you search for me?  Didn’t you know I would be about my father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)

Jesus was the picture of flow.  Always connected to the Father. Always working out His calling. Always flowing.

But Jesus didn’t just live in a constant state of flow. He brought flow. He is its source.

He told the Samaritan woman at the well, “You don’t know what God wants to give you, and you don’t know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life… The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.” (John 4:10-14 CEV).

The Dead Sea (Golan Heights in background)
The Dead Sea (Golan Heights in background)

As a student of the Bible I’ve been learning and speaking about this idea of “flow” for several years now. It seems to me that it happens as long as we let it, as long as we don’t dam it up. We can build dams in our life in two places that can prevent flow. The first is between us and God. If we aren’t open to God, His life can’t flow to us. The second place we can stop it is when we don’t open our lives to others. We become like the Dead Sea— all inlets with no outlets. The picture that I have in my mind is of one hand open to God and one hand open to others. As long as I keep both open, I experience the state of flow.

I feel God’s pleasure when I let Christ’s life flow to and through me to others in joyous generosity!