Tone Deaf

The concept of faith has whispered in tone deaf ears.  My tone deaf ears.  Faith's tone is a distinct one.  I recently read that Kierkegaard coined the term "leap of faith" which gives the tone of setting reason aside.  Understanding per se takes a break and we jump over it to God and His mysterious ways.

I have a friend who is a mechanical engineer and he often will deconstruct a beautiful object or room or, or anything.  He would wonder how a certain thing was formed, compiled, or constructed.  In those moments of wondering the concept of resting(faith) in the beauty of a creation is set aside.  It's an engineers mind and if you know one you know what I am talking about.

Humbly I would say that God is the master engineer.  His designs are far superior to our Image bearing manipulations of this material world.  Besides, the idea that God can perfectly deconstruct an infinite amount of things is probably unnecessary given his all-knowing nature.

I have been slowly memorizing Psalm 19, which is one of my favorites.  We look up and are in awe, or we are detached and/or dead.  "The heavens declare the glory of God..." My eyes leap and defy for a moment the gravity glue on the souls of my feet.  For a moment every now and then I set aside my arrogance and refrain from deconstruction and stand below the wonder of it all.

Faith's biblical description is found in several places.  It is the evidence of things hoped for yet not seen.  It's underlined in the stories of people in the 11th chapter of Hebrews.  The scriptures state that it comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  This brings me full circle to my hearing impediments, often chosen.  I stick reason in my ears and "La, la, la, la,..."  "If there was a way to drown out faith..."  "I am not sure I can leap that far..."  The self talk would morph into murmuring and complaining and the object of my affection would fade away.

I will once again pull my fingers out and point up to the heavens and breathe deep and my heart might even leap.

Stapes

Recently I observed real human bodies, peeled, sliced every which way.  It was a Chinese exhibit at a nearby museum.  Chinese people had offered their bodies upon their death to be observed in nakedness beyond all nakedness.  It was fascinating and strange at the same time. 

Yet one of the exhibits kinda stuck with me a little more than some others.  They had an inner ear with an arrow pointing to the smallest bone in the human body.  The stirrup or more formally the stapes.  I probably was dozing or staring at Becky(my Jr. high crush) when this interesting factoid was dispensed from a droning science teacher. 

I got to thinking...What's up with God putting a tiny tuning fork looking bone in the inner ear?  The sounds from without get a leg up to make it to our brains.  They "cowboy up" to transmit waves of sound to the human processor.  Is there marrow flowing within this cute little piece of pysiological saddlery?  Why bone at all?  Why not a more flexible tissue?  Just wondering.

I wonder if it might be some transcendent shadowing in God's design.  It is important to hear, and something solid is a physical metaphor for how God wants us to hear all that he has created...but more importantly, hear Him solidly. 

I do want to hear God.  Sometimes I hear distortions...maybe it's wax build up.  All the busyness of the life God has set before me becomes white noise if my spiritual tuning fork is disabled.   I know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God(which, by the way, can divide even the bones from marrow).  If I get my foot in the stirrup from the get go the sound waves might not crash down so hard and silence the still small voice in my life.  I can hear God in and through the family around me if I que-tip the things that build up in my life.  Through confession and honest interaction with God and others.  
To live in the moments with grace and love the little stirrup does it's transmitting in a healthy way.