HEELCATCHER

Something to chew on…

Music is a universal language. It is found in all cultures…is based on similar sounds…bonds groups together…and produces intense emotions in all who hear.

Who hasn’t had the experience of singing the lyrics of a song they haven’t heard in 10-20 years?

Who hasn’t heard a song and had a flood of memories and emotions saturate their soul?

Music is powerful…and the benefits of singing are numerous. Music lessens feelings of loneliness and depression, helps alleviate anxiety, and increases satisfaction and the quality of life. Some studies have even indicated that our heart rates actually sync up when we are singing together in a group.

Amazing.

We seem to be designed for music.

Sociologists have found that all cultures sing lullabies to their babies and that all babies like certain kinds of sounds (harmonious ones rather than dissonant ones). Music seems to reside deep in our souls…from the time we are born.

Evolutionary biologists wonder why. From an evolutionary standpoint, music seems to be “auditory cheesecake”—it makes us happy without any real survival benefits. Others suggest that music was simply about attracting a good mate or even bonding larger groups together while they picked fleas off each other.

But the power of music begs for a higher answer.

We were created to sing…by a God who sings.

Roughly one-third of the Bible is written in poetic language…with rhythm…with harmonious sounds. The largest book in the Bible is Psalms. And the first words out of Adam’s mouth were poetic. When he saw Eve, he literally sang.

When the Spirit of God fills us, we sing.

And when Christ finally reigns on this earth, all creation will sing. Not just us…but apparently the animals will join in as well.

So the next time you find yourself singing with the music…remember your Creator…and use your breath to proclaim His praise.

Something to chew on…

Everything around you…everything that you see…even the chair that you are sitting in…is mostly empty space. There’s nothing much to them. Barely enough “matter” to call them “matter.”

“Solid matter, the floor upon which we stand and the foundation that bears the weight of a skyscraper, is actually empty space. If we could scale the center of an atom, the nucleus, up to four inches, the surrounding electron cloud would extend to four miles away and essentially all the breach between would be marvelously empty. The solidity of iron is actually 99.9999999999999% startingly vacuous space made to feel solid by ethereal fields of force having no material reality at all.” (Gerald Schroeder, Ph.D. from MIT)

As you look at “solid objects,” what you are actually “seeing” is energy being held together with marvelous, incomprehensible order and power.

Even your own body is mostly empty space. If you were to compress the empty space out of the entire population of the earth…all 7.5 billion of us…then we could all fit into the size of sugar cube.

We aren’t as big as we think we are.

And the things we call “solids” are not as solid as we think we are.

Everything in this universe…including yourself…is energy…held together…created…ordered…sustained…by an ethereal power that no one can fully understand or explain.

“That all existence may be the expression of information, an idea, a quantum wave function, is not fantasy… It is mainstream science coming from such universities as Princeton and MIT.” (Schroeder)

A Power…a Word…greater than all things sustains reality.

“In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)

“All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16b-17)

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3)

Something to chew on…

Scientists and philosophers continue to struggle with providing any kind of explanation for “consciousness.”

In other words, why do you have thoughts? Why do you have a sense of pleasure and of pain? Why do you have an awareness that you are even reading this post?

There are two predominant theories.

One, consciousness is a giant illusion. Your thoughts are just brain chemicals sloshing around in your skull. What you think is a thought is really not a thought but more like the fizz that comes up from a can of Coke when you shake it.

Two, the whole universe is conscious. This theory, called panpsychism, believes that all matter is inherently conscious, including the insects crawling around your house, your lawn, the rocks in your driveway, your chair, and your iPhone.

So, in essence, if you deny the existence of God and the concept of a human spirit, then you actually eliminate the very thought which came to that conclusion. A true materialist must cease from all argumentation for his own viewpoint since his own viewpoint is an illusion. Or you must turn to a modern form of pantheism which makes all things conscious and raises terrifying ethical dilemmas every time you swat a mosquito or even mow your lawn.

Sometimes the faith it takes to deny God is so much greater than the faith it takes to believe in Him, stand in awe at His creation, and humbly thank Him for the gift of life…and of consciousness.

Something to chew on…

As you read this post, 300 million cells are dying in your body and being replaced and regenerated, on their own, according to the specific instructions in your DNA.

Your lungs are breathing in air, oxygenating your blood, which is being pumped out by your heart, constantly, rhythmically, at about 60-70 beats per minute, nourishing all 50 trillion cells in your body.

All the nerves and senses in your body are sending 11 million bits per second of information to your brain which is processing all of it while you are only conscious of about 50 bits per second.

Meanwhile, you are standing on the side of a massive globe, being held in place by the force of gravity, while rotating at 1000 mph, orbiting around the sun at 67,000 mph, and speeding through space at 450,000 mph.

And on this globe, you are one of 7.7 billion people…of whom 99.99999999999999% are outside of your control when it comes to their thoughts, opinions, affections, or choices. You can only control your own thoughts, opinions, affections, and choices…and even in your own life you often fight against yourself and struggle to understand yourself.

So be humble. You are not in control.

And learn to trust and rest in the One Who is.

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
(Isaiah 26:3-4)