noisy words

Have you ever noticed how the way some people speak about themselves or others makes you more self-conscious about the way you do something yourself? I have – obviously, since I have just asked if anyone else has noticed. But yeah, isn’t it interesting how that can affect the way you do things? Words of others can create noise in our souls (internal thoughts that don’t come from God) and can often paralyse us from doing more than we should.

The other day I overheard someone making a comment about someone else singing out of tune. It wasn’t the first time I have heard someone comment on something like this (other times it can be a snigger when someone sings the wrong part, sings the wrong melody, starts singing too early, starts to sing verse 4 when the chair person has said to only sing up to verse 3) but it just made me wonder, how much have similar comments influenced me on a personal level. And when I thought about it, I realised they had definitely influenced me - significantly.

Most of the time, people who make such comments have some kind of ‘authority’ to do so – they are in the choir, they are a musician or they have been gifted with a good voice – and as a result, you kind of revere what they say and subconsciously try to live up to (or sing up to) their standard. I have even found that such comments have rubbed off on me (someone with no such ‘authority’) – as I have also been guilty of sniggering at someone and making comments about others. It reminds me of the cycle of bullying – kid gets teased, kid becomes more popular by doing and saying the ‘right’ things, kid solidifies popularity by teasing other kids, original teased kid becomes the next bully – cycle resets.

Let me expand this example further. I have found that often when I sing now, I won’t attempt to sing high parts in a song because I am afraid that I will squeak or produce an unpleasant break in my voice, I talk myself down saying that I am not a good singer, and when I am around people with ‘the authority’ I lower my volume (like I don’t want to offend their ears). It has created noise in my soul and has ultimately distracted me from true worship of God. You may argue that it is my fault for listening to this noise myself, and it might be, but because it is so subconscious, I never (in the 20 odd years I have been going to church) really realised it until recently.

When we worship God, our minds should be on Him and on Him alone. How would you feel if someone you love was telling you how much they love you, but feeling was absent in their eyes because they were too worried about their enunciation, tone and pitch? How then do you think God feels when we distract ourselves from worship by trying to sing up to the standard of others, and in the process forget that we are supposed to be praising the One who gave us our voice – the voice that will always be beautiful and in tune in His ears, as long as it manifests the awe and praise that is in our hearts.

I have been to other churches where worship seems so much more genuine and real – people are not afraid of what others are thinking of the way they are singing. They’ll be fully singing out of tune but they are just so lost in worship that it doesn’t cross their mind at all. Moreover, the people next to them are also so lost in worship themselves that they don’t even notice that their pew-buddy is out of tune. Though such churches may be criticised for their doctrine and their style of worship, I believe that much can be learnt from their non-judgemental attitude to others. These guys are so involved in their praise for God and subsequently their off-beat, out-of-tune voices, are a sweet-sounding-symphony to the Lord. I really truly believe that we need to spend less time trying to sing right, and more time getting our hearts right before the Lord.

OK so I got a bit carried away with the example there, but it just goes to show what kind of effect a few stray words here and there can have. After all, in James, we read about the power the tongue has – it is described as an ‘unruly beast’ and ‘full of poison’. Though it is a little bit of muscle in our mouth, it’s pretty deadly.

I think it is also worth stepping back from everything once in a while to re-evaluate whether what we see as important is important in God’s eyes as well. It is easy in our daily lives to get distracted by things around us (like focussing too much on what someone says), and because they seem worthy of the distraction at the time (you revere that person and what she / he has to say), we let our guard down and then allow it to consume us with time. The result a lot of the time is that we lose focus of the big picture and even miss the point of what we do completely.

So the moral of the blogpost is that we should firstly, watch what we say, secondly, examine what people say to us and not allow it to generate noise in our souls (remembering that noise is NOT from God, if someone says something that is from God, you should definitely listen), and thirdly, regularly take a step back from what you're doing and refer to the big picture lest you lose sight of it.

Lord please help me to fear You above all other things. Help me to see what is important to You, and help me overcome my fear of man. Give me that desire to do what You want me to do and take away my own selfish desires. Help me to see everything with eternity's values in view. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.