Harmony Rings

Harmony Rings began simply as my online user name for You Tube and then various other web sites. I chose it because musical harmony appeals to me both as a listener and as a singer. However, as I ponder the name I realize that it penetrates much deeper that what the ear can perceive.

As a child of God I desire for my life's song to be a harmony in God's great symphony. As I work together with my brothers and sisters in Christ the part I am playing should compliment theirs, and we should all be meticulously in tune with God's word. At times I may be asked to play a lead and I pray that I will play it well. At other times my part will be almost undetectable to the world, but I know that it is important to my Father's perfect arrangement and I ask him to help me to execute it with precision. There may be times when my function in the score will be to rest. I pray that I will do it effectively and come back in right on beat. Much of the time I will be playing right along with the other musicians in the symphony of life called the church, and every note I produce should blend well with the other notes in the song.

In 1 Corinthians 12 we read:

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

As I consider the application to music and to my life I could ask, "if the alto should say, 'because I am not a soprano, I do not belong to the choir,' would she for that reason cease to be part of the choir?" Or "if the baritone should say, 'because I am not a tenor, I do not belong to the choir,' would he for that reason cease to be part of the choir? "Each voice has value and we should all praise God for giving us a part to sing in His song.

Verse 26 reminds us that ^"If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." Sometimes a member of the group will be out of tune or make a mistake or be unable to preform because of an illness. When that happens the whole choir is affected. If one member is singing out of tune others may follow. If one member is in error the whole company sounds bad. If one member becomes ill the others will miss and grieve for their fellow musician.

Thankfully the Master Composer has a plan to rescue us from our discord. He knows that none of us is perfect so he sent his perfect Son Jesus to sing a flawless song. Jesus was punished for our imperfections and payed the penalty we deserve. But because his song was perfect He was restored to his proper place at the Great Conductor's right hand. Now if we will trust in him he will cover all of our mistakes with his blamelessly beautiful music.* "So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:28)

So you see, all of life's a song and I want mine to ring with beautiful harmonies. Praise be to God for sending Jesus to tune my heart and transform my life song.

*If you do not yet know Jesus as your Savior please ask me to explain this more clearly.

White Noise (A Lesson from My Hair Dryer)

Yes, this is a picture of me drying my hair. I smiled for the camera! This morning I was praying during this everyday activity, and a few thoughts occurred to me. It may seem like my mind was wondering, but the ideas are worth pondering.

When the hairdryer is running and humming in my ear my husband will sometimes try to begin a conversation with me from across the room. I find this aggravating because I can't hear him. I was thinking about how great it is that I can talk to God and he can hear me no matter what noise is going on around me. The more I thought about it though I realized; if I were to say something to my husband while I am drying my hair he would probably hear me because the sound of the device is not so close to him. I began to wonder, "can I hear God when I pray through the white noise of life"? . Hopefully I can hear him speak to me through the sounds in my ears, but how much white noise in my heart do I try to converse with him through? Am I really trying to have a conversation, or is it mostly just one-sided babbling?

Last Friday the scenario occurred that I previously mentioned. I got aggravated because I couldn't hear my husband and he stopped trying to communicate with me. After a while I decided what I really needed was to just spend some time with him; time with no interruptions or distractions or loud noises interfering with our communication. I took him by the hand and began walking toward the living room, the one room in our house that is usually free of messes and clutter. I was glad that he was willing to go with me, glad that he was willing to put aside what he was doing. We sat on the sofa and talked. We simply engaged in two-way conversation; the kind where each person has a chance to share their thoughts and ideas. It was refreshing and restorative. The tension dispersed. We were able to connect.

Oh, how many times my conversations with God take place with the hum of a million thoughts bouncing around in my head. I am not really listening, I'm just talking endlessly. How many times I say what I need to say but the white noise in my heart drowns out His response. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with praying while I go about the activities of my day, it's scriptural: 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "pray continually;" those two words must be important, they make up the entire verse. I do hear Him speak to me during the daily activities of life, but my focus here is the importance of setting aside times just to spend with God. We should always be in fellowship and communion with Him, but sometimes that is all we should be doing. What better way is there to be refreshed and restored, to release tension, and to really connect with our Creator, our Father, our God?