Wisdom 6 It Takes a Tuning fork

[HKHaugan]

Wisdom 6 It Takes a Tuning Fork

 “You haven’t heard a word I said.” “You aren’t listening, I can tell.” “Didn’t it register with you that I was speaking to you? How come you didn’t get that?” Perhaps we’ve had those directed at us one time or other. Wisdom calls us to attention. Wisdom calls us to be alert, conscious of the moment, sensitive to who we are with. When we talk about wisdom, as we have in these articles, we want to make sure we are on the same page. We want to be quick to listen and slow to react. I’m talking about spiritual listening with spiritual ears. There is real listening, which is spiritual, and there is cultural listening, which is our social politeness smilingly filtering out what we don’t want to hear.

 You might say that listening and hearing have two levels of perception. Listening is just logging in the sounds. Hearing is interpreting what the sounds mean. Or is listening the gateway to hearing? Everyone listens but does everyone hear? “In one ear and out the other” is listening without hearing. “What I hear you saying” is listening with the attempt to understand. What these point to is the need for both listening and hearing spiritually.

 For a disciple of Jesus, both are Holy Spirit guided. Interpretation is focused on Jesus who lived listening to His Father, hearing His heart and reacting through the Spirit. This was grace, truth love and faith in its fullness. That’s what we see in, and experience through, His Word when our spiritual senses are awakened. Do we approach our spiritual listening and hearing with the expectation that it is the Lord Himself speaking?

 This is basically why the Lord quotes Isaiah’s cryptic prophecy (Is.13:13-15) and speaks in parables because the people “…will be ever hearing but never understanding…they hardly hear with their ears…their hearts are calloused…” Wisdom leads us to see the heart as our major sensor. If the heart is sensitive to the Holy Spirit, then both our physical and spiritual senses will be open.

 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom.10:17).” “Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live (Is.55:3).” “Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth (Ps.78:1).”

 Scripture is much like a symphony being played. It is a nuanced set of notes forming tunes and melodies the composer intends for us to enjoy. We may not get his direct message but what we hear can be interpreted in the context of our experiences. It is the same with a painting or a sculpture. However, the Word of God is in a form that brings sounds to a crescendo of meaning and inspiration to act. What the Father has composed, the Son directs, and the Spirit brings to life.

 It is in the teaching and preaching of the Word that God’s spiritual symphony resounds with the majesty of His presence. It is the Person of Jesus in His flesh that tells us each of us we are players in the greater symphony He is directing, His Creation. We are His spiritual instruments. Our bodies contain the mind, heart and spirit uniquely given to be played in that majestic symphony He is composing. The notes we play with the instrument we are given come from His score which is His Word.

 The Body of Christ is His orchestra. The Lord Jesus directs us through the spiritual gifts and spiritual qualities He gives us. With these we rehearse and share in one another’s harmony which build us to be an orchestra in the unity of His love. This in turn prepares us to bring His music into a world where the pretense of making music is a discordant cacophony of jumbled sounds and lonely confusion. The world is where the devil plays the music of the night; his composition of sin, separation, sadness and depression. His music is played in the darkness where fear, anger, greed and pride take the images of God and strew them about in a rehearsal hall of self-centeredness and blind ambition.

 The goal of God’s symphony is to make the world whole, complete and fulfilling for those who desire the touch of the Creator’s hand and purpose. It is the feel of the symphony that inspires the hearts of God’s images to reach above and beyond where they are. To be restored as His instruments and become active players in the symphony from that other dimension transcending physical existence. Musicians, artists, actors, dancers are the cadre of humanity that know there is more to nurture and development in the human soul than physical satisfaction and accomplishment.

 It is not until Jesus stirs their hearts that their search is enriched to see their real role of drawing others into the beauty of Creation. The photographer, the writer, the architect, the builder, the craftsman, the teacher, the professor, to name a few, find that there is more to be gleaned from the massive universe lying before us. But that is the drivenness in all of us, the spirit in us that yearns for the Spirit of God to complete what He started in each of us when we were born. In Jesus that dream is fulfilled by faith in the Architect and Composer who designed the unique instrument each of us has been given. It is the realization that we are relational, spiritually relational, that opens the door to being at one with God through Him. This is the key He offers us and the music begins to play and we begin to play in this greater score He began in Creation.

 Listening, hearing and digesting this deeper spiritual reality of musical assemblage makes us hunger and thirst for the ultimate concert hall that is Heaven. And Heaven is where angels maintain the glory of the Composer-Director-Motivator we call God, revealed in the Savior and Lord, Jesus the Christ.  Wisdom is the tuning fork God sounds in each of us, so we can play our instrument in His orchestra for the world to hear and be reconciled to Him. And His wisdom tells us our identity, our purpose, our function and our location are the concert hall in which we play the music of Heaven.