Hearing Music Between the Notes

Spirituality Column #207
October 26, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Hearing Music between the Notes
By Bob Walters

“Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

There was a 30-year period of my life from my mid-teens to my mid-40s that I didn’t go to church and was utterly without conviction about God.

God was quiet and I wasn’t listening anyway.

College and career and home and family filled life’s gaps. The idea of “going to church” or “being a Christian” seemed a grim, limiting, monochromatic, spirit-shrinking, intellect-killing enterprise.

My experience since coming to Christ has been the opposite of that. Any Christian who strides humbly but confidently in his or her walk with the Lord can relate to the joy, wonder, color, freedom and thought of Christian life.

I’ve been reading A Place for Truth, a thought-inspiring new book which recounts various “Truth” discussions at leading U.S. college campuses sponsored by the Christian Veritas Forum. Jeremy Begbie’s dissertation on music revealed to me new and surprising dimension and depth of the faith experience:

Christians must learn “to hear between the notes.”

Begbie is a theology professor at Duke Divinity School, an Anglican priest and also a classically trained musician. In his 2007 presentation at Cal-Berkley, he talked about musical tonalities and meter; about tension and resolution. There is a “beat” in music, Begbie noted, the same way there is a “beat” in our lives, and a meter in mankind’s relationship with God.

Exhibit A is the Bible. God’s interaction, silence, and surprises are easily compared to the movements of a classical symphony where properly placed pause or a tension-filled passage leaves us gasping for resolution.

Spiritual “silence” is not uncommon in our lives. There are, quoting Begbie, “in-between times … when it seems God is on vacation … when grace doesn’t seem very amazing anymore.” That’s when it’s time to listen “between the notes.”

Recount the Old Testament’s trials and truths; then consider God’s silence before the appearance of Christ, signaling the salvation of mankind.

Jesus Christ, Begbie teases, “is the Big Downbeat” providing humanity with the expectation, hope, and discipline for the symphony yet to come. God’s silence should be for us a time of prayer and trust in God’s resolution, not despair.

Once I only paid attention to the simple melodies and dissonant noise of life, with no clue how to appreciate the divine music between the notes.
Now I know that God is talking then, too, and it is joyful to listen.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) has great appreciation for great music, but no musical talent.

Perseverance is Greek To Me

Spirituality Column #61
January 8, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Perseverance is Greek To Me
By Bob Walters

The word “perseverance” doesn’t appear at all in the Old Testament, and appears only once in most versions of the New Testament (King James, English Standard, Revised Standard, Message, etc), in Ephesians 6:18.

(Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Eph. 6:18 KJV)

The New International Version lists “perseverance” 12 times in the New Testament, but oddly not in Ephesians 6:18.

“Perseverance” in the NIV replaces the words “patience” or “patient” which appear in most other versions.

I’m not writing though about versions of the Bible or specific verses. I’m writing about perseverance. Persevering in faith, in prayer and in Christ are all huge New Testament callings.

Turns out, courtesy of my friend George Bebawi (a world renowned religious scholar and Bible translator who happens to live in Carmel), that the New Testament says “perseverance” because it was written mostly in Greek, and the common Hebrew word from the Old Testament for the same concept was “faithfulness” which was not a common word in Greek literature.

On the modern American scene, in any translation, “perseverance” can be understood as “hang in there.”

Faithfulness is understood in the Old Testament not to be “our” faithfulness (the faithfulness of sinful man); but the faithfulness of God. This idea of God’s faithfulness, George points out, forms the heart of the Old Testament and especially the Psalms.

In plain English what the Bible is saying is: Man cannot truly be faithful … only God can be faithful. And since we often don’t understand God’s faithfulness – although sometimes we do – we must persevere in our faith to trust God no matter what.

I was thinking about New Year’s resolutions, persevering in them (if you’re still abiding in them heading into Week 2 of 2008, congratulations … that’s perseverance), and being faithful.

Jesus Christ gives us a reason to persevere, because in Him we can connect directly to the faithfulness of God, even if we ourselves can’t exactly pull it off.

So what I’m wondering is, are you “hanging in there?”

There is good reason to.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) agrees with his friend George that the most important thing in which to persevere in the New Year is our love for each other. Now that’s huge.

Persevering in Those Resolutions

Spirituality Column #60
January 1, 2008
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Persevering in Those Resolutions
By Bob Walters

When I was a kid at church, the Episcopal priest one day was talking about the custom of giving up things for Lent (the 40 days before Easter).

He made fun of a mythical church adult who made a big deal about “giving up sweets for Lent” and was enjoying all the attention for the effort … but also still enjoying the sweets when out of public view.

The priest’s point – which stuck forever in my mind – was that it is very difficult to “give up” something when you advertise it to others.

That isn’t just a Bible or Christian thing; that is a Truth of Life as a Human Being thing: it is hard to do something hard when people are watching you.

Fourteen years ago, Jan. 1, 1994, I quit smoking. I just stopped. A pack or more a day habit for 13 and a half years … and I just stopped. Big New Years Eve party, smoked, got home around 1:30 a.m. Got up the next day and haven’t smoked since.

I had been contemplating quitting for a while. It was the year I turned 40. With sons ages 6 and almost 2, it was my love for them and my desire to see them grow up that inspired my wanting to quit. I marveled at how much strength I somehow found to actually follow through.

It is important to note at that time I was twenty-some years into my 30-years of not going to church and seven years before I came to the Lord. But remembering that childhood sermon about Lent, I didn’t tell anyone I was trying to quit smoking.

Except I told God, who I did not know very well. But I prayed anyway … who else could I tell? Looking back, that is where my strength came from.

Yes, we are to love others, find strength in others, and be strong for others. But nothing is as strong as our bond with God through Christ. Through Christ we can do all things.

This is the time of year we all have some sort of resolution, aspiration or hope for the New Year. Don’t feel you have to tell anyone about yours … except God.

He’ll help you. And He already knows anyway.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wishes you a New Year rich in a deep, growing and abiding faith in Christ. That is something you should tell someone about.