“When the morning stars sang together…”

Dr. Fiorella Terenzi

Let’s assume for the moment that Andy is right; the more we get to know God, the better we’ll understand what makes us fully “human.� Maybe then, as we understand ourselves, the yearning will subside into what Isaiah describes as “perfect peace� (Isa. 26:3).

How do you describe Father God? Perhaps you use adjectives like “holy�, “mighty�,�just�,�severe�, or “loving�. From my vantage point, all of these words can be accurately used to describe Him, and it is not blasphemy to use these words to characterize aspects of His personality Rarely, though, do we ever describe God using the equally accurate terms “imaginative� or (dare I say it?) “creative�. Why not?

For some reason, I get so hung up with learning about God from the stories of Scripture, that I forget that he wrote the Story to begin with. Before God was a mathematician, a physicist, a father, or a judge, He was an Artist. You and I are. in essence, the personication of His imagination. His artistic instincts provoked him to paint the portrait of reality on a canvas of nothing.

The universe teems with evidence of an extravagant, imaginative, almost reckless Creator. Consider Job 38:7, in which God asks Job, “(Where were you)…When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy?� At first glance, this passage seems to be a piece of abstract poetry, not meant to be taken literally, but what if—what if the stars actually sing?

Something like 20 years ago, Astrophysicist Dr. Fiorella Terenzi aimed the famous SETI radio telescopes of Socorro, New Mexico at a galaxy naked to the human eye (she knew it was there based upon the radio waves it emitted), and she used a synthesizer to transform the radiation of galaxy UGC 6697 into discernible frequencies that human ears could hear. Essentially, she discovered that the frequencies heavenly bodies emitted could be related to human ears in the form of gigantic and almost overwhelming music

Although this “space music� is much different than anything that humans would create, Dr. Terenzi analyzed it and realized that although it sounds somewhat random to our ears, it actually represents a complicated system of tonality that is produced by the spiraling nature of this galaxy.

When one listens to Music of the Galaxies. the recording Dr. Terenzi produced, one cannot help but be staggered by the weight of artistry evident here. Granted, this music is hard to understand, but is it likely that God would create music small enough for our ears to handle? The symphonic nature of this galaxy evokes the idea of a million piece orchestra, an orchestra in which no two instruments are alike.

“What is man, that you are mindful of him? And the Son of Man, that you remember him?�

A Quick Digression

        

 Cave Man Rock and Roll

I just wanted to post this photo as a way of letting you know that I now have a photo section via Flikr. Click on “Photos” at the top of the blog to access my page. 

This photo was taken when Dan and Yukiko came to my house to visit on their “furlow” (sp?). Great times were had by all, and Dan and I even played one of our old tunes in church on Sunday (”Testimony”, for those of you who know our stuff). I’ll try to find a recording of it to post online.

Descending Digits and Dreams

Neo faces a stunning discovery…the world in which he has lived, including the wonderful noodles he loves so dearly, are not real.  In fact, his world is much less complex than he has ever imagined.  His reality…everything, from his dumpy little apartment, to the million dollar high rise in which he works…can be observed as simple streams of computer code descending on a screen.  All that he works and hopes for is an illusion that can be captured between two pieces of plastic.  What a nightmare.

Strangely enough, I find this depiction of reality to ring eerily true in the lives of middle class, American Christians.  Although we may pay obeisance to abstract reality on Sunday morning, through the rest of the week we behave as if we’ve gotten our world pretty much figured out.  It’s as if we can read the descending code all around us.  “If I wake up at 6:30, and hit all the lights, then I’ll make it to work on time.  If I put 20% of my paycheck into my 401k, then I’ll retire as a millionaire.  If someone has a sin problem, then they need to accept Christ as their personal Savior.  If someone doesn’t believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, then they need to read John 1:3, Collosians 1:16, and Isaiah 44:24.”  We boil our world down to a series of “if…then” statements with a level of stark simplicity that a computer programmer could only dream of.  

And yet we still yearn.

In our Post-Modern way, we’ve deconstructed the world around us, but because we’re Christians, we’ve felt an obligation to reconstruct it.  The design flaw is that we’ve relied on only the weakest timbers of truth to build a house that is only marginally pleasing to live in. Systematic theology and Catechism give us the comfort that we are right, while our souls send up a white flag of surrender to crippling boredom.  We’ve got it all figured out…everything but what it means to be human.

When was the last time that you felt at rest, mind, body, and soul?  What brought about that peace?

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“Do you ever yearn?”

In the Seinfeld episode entitled “The Keys”, Kramer accosts George with a monumental question: “George, Do you ever yearn?” 

“Do I yearn?”

“Yeah, do you ever yearn?”

“No, I crave all the time, constant craving–but I can’t say that I yearn.”

“Well, I yearn…Sometimes I just sit and yearn.”

“All right, Kramer, you’re freakin’ me out–”

If George hadn’t known that he was listening to the ravings of a nearly mad man, he might not have missed the urgency and import of this question. 

Do you ever yearn?

Of course, I’m an evangelical Christian, so I’m supposed to say that when one embraces a relationship with Christ, the yearning ends.  This is emphatically true–to a point.  I have to say that I meet more dissatisfied, discontent, and yearning young Christians than I do “unsaved” people.  A bit sad, eh?  The only people in the universe who have the right to have peace and contentment still seem to be looking for some other satisfaction. 

Prominent ministers and church leaders would tell us that this yearning is brought on by some attachment to the “world”, and that the more we dig into our relationship with Christ, the less we’ll feel that yearning.  I am sure that they are on to something, yet I still find satisfaction elusive.  How about you?

Perhaps the trouble we have in experiencing satisfaction comes not so much from our lack of relationship to Christ, but from our lack of understanding of our soul, of what it means to be fully human.  It would be foolish for me to attempt to drive a car if I didn’t know how my arms worked.  In the same way, I find it fruitless to pursue a spiritual realtionship to Christ without a concrete understanding of myself.

Over the next week or so, I am going to chase this idea of “soulishness” (to borrow C.S. Lewis’ term), and I’d like for you to join me for the ride. 

In your mind, what does it mean to be fully human?