Let's bring back face to face
I was talking to Rachel,a freshman band member, who is trying out for All-State Band this weekend and she was explaining the process of being adjudicated on the snare, chimes, and timpani. That conversation reminded me of trying out for the Florida All-State Chorus my senior year in high school. Owing to the fact that my state level tryouts were 46 years ago, I might miss a few details, but the point I'm trying to make is still as clear as that day.
I had rehearsed four separate pieces of music for the examination. I along with another tenor and pairs of singers (none of who went to my school) for each of the other vocal parts were led into a large room with no chairs and three judges.We were to sight read (that is what you do to a selection of music you have not seen before...however I was in luck it was a hymn!) a song and then sing a song or two that we had rehearsed. We sang as a double, mixed, quartet or eight people, male and female, singing four part harmony. Now here is the scary part of this whole deal. After receiving our pitch, we began singing unaccompanied (no piano, no CD, no string quartet, no other help) AND here it comes -the real scary part...the judges walked around the room and got right in your face to ascertain whether or not you were any good at singing! No time to re-tune or use a splash of Listerine, face to face with a person who was interested in knowing all about your singing ability and they were willing to do it up close and personal. This was Face Time well before the i-phone was even imagined.
About a week ago I saw a brief interview with Brady Quinn, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, who was talking about the suicide of a fellow KC football player who had prior to taking his death shot and killed his girlfriend. Quinn said that he didn't really know what was going on with him this teammate. When they spoke they each had the usual response that they were "good." Quinn continued by saying that we need to stop and listen to friends and family and quit thinking we are communicating when we "talk" on Facebook or Twitter.
Hold your horses...I'm coming to the point even though I think have done a relatively good job of making a point without making the point which is where I am now. "Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." Exodus 33:11 (NLT). Look again at the verse. Look for how friends communicate. How God himself wants to communicate with us is the best example for friends - face to face. Looking in their eyes, watching their body language, listening to the inflections in their voice and just being present with them, this is the way to know someone; to communicate with someone; to love someone.- face to face.
Richard
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Fearfully and Wonderfully made? Me?
I looked in the mirror this morning and "whoa!" have I aged and gotten heavier. I need wrinkle cream, eye brows plucked, nose hair trimmed, Grecian Formula for a younger hair color, contacts (can you get those when all you need are "readers"?), a hairscut (why do people call it a haircut? I get way more than one cut since its the same price for a little or a lot), and mouthwash. Boy looking at myself today I can agree with the psalmist, I am fearfully and wonderfully made...well sort of. I got the fearful-to-look-at part down.
I was channel surfing the other night and ran across "Taboo" a show on the National Geographic Channel. This episode was examining people who try desperately to change their physical look with either plastic surgery, anorexia, implants, or major surgery. The segment I saw introduced us to a 19 year old Russian young woman who wanted to be taller so she would like many of her fellow countrymen who have made it as runway (not run away) models. She goes to Siberia to a hospital where a doctor specializes in lengthening peoples' legs. Wait to you hear how. This is straight out of Dr. Frankenstein's monster. Did you know that Frankenstein was not the name of the monster but the name of the doctor who "created" it...him...uh...it? And while we are on this literary rabbit-chasing segment, who wrote "Frankenstein?" Back to Siberia. This girl goes to the doctor and under anesthesia he breaks her lower leg bones with a chisel; places her legs in a bird cage type contraption which has bolts that are adjustable so the leg can be stretched. Yep every day the bolts are turned and the new bone continues to fill in the gap made by the chisel until after about a year each leg is one inch longer. She now is 5-4" instead of 5'-3". In my estimation, no where close to runway model dimensions, but hey when it heals she will have it done again!! The chisel part breaking a bone makes my skin (wrinkled as it may be) crawl.
I wonder what God thinks when we try and "improve" His creation. His pinnacle of creation...man? Okay so you say "God would definitely frown on the leg surgery", but what about tattoos, or body piercings, or other changes like hair color or ____ is it just different degrees of altering the creation? God's creation. Hmmm. <Right here there has been a 20 hour pause to think further, because "hair color" brings my wife, Betsy, into the conversation and I need to weigh the consequences of continuing on this path.> Hey I'm not attempting to judge. Others already do a much better job of that than I, but don't we at least need to struggle with the answer?
If I am careful to read Psalm 139 in two translations here is what the psalmist has to say about himself, God's creation - I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. Psalm 139:14 (NKJV). Also - Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14 (NLT). In both he considers his own being and proclaims, "Marvelous are your works" and "Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it." Does that in any way give us a clue as to how God looks at me, one of his "marvelous works?" If that is so, should I look at myself the same way? Just wondering....
I looked in the mirror this morning and "whoa!" have I aged and gotten heavier. I need wrinkle cream, eye brows plucked, nose hair trimmed, Grecian Formula for a younger hair color, contacts (can you get those when all you need are "readers"?), a hairscut (why do people call it a haircut? I get way more than one cut since its the same price for a little or a lot), and mouthwash. Boy looking at myself today I can agree with the psalmist, I am fearfully and wonderfully made...well sort of. I got the fearful-to-look-at part down.
I was channel surfing the other night and ran across "Taboo" a show on the National Geographic Channel. This episode was examining people who try desperately to change their physical look with either plastic surgery, anorexia, implants, or major surgery. The segment I saw introduced us to a 19 year old Russian young woman who wanted to be taller so she would like many of her fellow countrymen who have made it as runway (not run away) models. She goes to Siberia to a hospital where a doctor specializes in lengthening peoples' legs. Wait to you hear how. This is straight out of Dr. Frankenstein's monster. Did you know that Frankenstein was not the name of the monster but the name of the doctor who "created" it...him...uh...it? And while we are on this literary rabbit-chasing segment, who wrote "Frankenstein?" Back to Siberia. This girl goes to the doctor and under anesthesia he breaks her lower leg bones with a chisel; places her legs in a bird cage type contraption which has bolts that are adjustable so the leg can be stretched. Yep every day the bolts are turned and the new bone continues to fill in the gap made by the chisel until after about a year each leg is one inch longer. She now is 5-4" instead of 5'-3". In my estimation, no where close to runway model dimensions, but hey when it heals she will have it done again!! The chisel part breaking a bone makes my skin (wrinkled as it may be) crawl.
I wonder what God thinks when we try and "improve" His creation. His pinnacle of creation...man? Okay so you say "God would definitely frown on the leg surgery", but what about tattoos, or body piercings, or other changes like hair color or ____ is it just different degrees of altering the creation? God's creation. Hmmm. <Right here there has been a 20 hour pause to think further, because "hair color" brings my wife, Betsy, into the conversation and I need to weigh the consequences of continuing on this path.> Hey I'm not attempting to judge. Others already do a much better job of that than I, but don't we at least need to struggle with the answer?
If I am careful to read Psalm 139 in two translations here is what the psalmist has to say about himself, God's creation - I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. Psalm 139:14 (NKJV). Also - Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14 (NLT). In both he considers his own being and proclaims, "Marvelous are your works" and "Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it." Does that in any way give us a clue as to how God looks at me, one of his "marvelous works?" If that is so, should I look at myself the same way? Just wondering....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)