Sound Prints

This week sound historians released a recording from 1860 of a french woman singing "Au Claire do la Lune". This primitive recording was etched on soot-covered paper by a stylus. The stylus was propelled by a rubber diaphragm that that vibrated as the singer sang. Scientists were able to digitize the image of these etchings and convert them to sound, wobbly and faint, but identifiable as a song. One of the historians mentioned that this recording literally came out of smoke to be heard nearly 150 years after it was spoken.

Sound travels in waves. Our own ears have diaphragms, or drums, that let us hear music or words. The sounds we hear leave an imprint upon our brains. Often our whole bodies react to the impact of sound and it leaves a memory of fear or joy within our nervous system. Sounds leave their prints on us.

I wonder how much of the past has been etched by sound into the world we inhabit. Do ancient, sooty caves in France have sound prints as well as primitive paintings on their walls? Do cliffs and rocks and city walls record the conversations that have taken place in front of them through the ages? Are forgotten words recorded in the molecules that vibrated under their impact?

We have only recently discovered how to follow DNA trails through our environment to see who came before us and what they did. We can trace how far we ourselves have migrated from our ancestral homes through analysis of a few cells from the inside our mouths.

Scientists are discovering more and more accurately what has gone on in our world by reading more and more definitively all that is embedded in the soil, the tissues and minerals that make up the substance of the earth. There is the DNA trail to follow, but there are also paths left by fires, floods, earthquakes, landslides, mud flows and deep ice. Records are found everywhere they look. The universe is book written by God.

Perhaps all that has ever been, still is. All that went before us, that we consider lost in the mists of time, may still surround us. God has said that everything hidden will be revealed, that every careless word will be accounted for, that He sees every every sparrow that has ever fallen. There is a record over time that He sees and hears.

I have thought that only God was the great repository of all that can be remembered. It didn't occur to me until today that in actuality, He has built memory into every part of creation. Some of the memory we have discovered already, much is yet to be discovered.

All of this to say that what we say and do is important. None of it goes missing or gets lost in the atmosphere. No deed or word fails to have an impact. We are print-making upon our world every moment that we live and even after we are gone, the impact continues.

The Bible says that we are like smoke that rises and is gone. Nevertheless, smoke speaks.

Roof off, walls down

I have a little booklet called "Continuous Revival" by Norman Grubb and today I read in it about the concept of "roof off, walls down." It is about spiritual brokenness and it got me thinking about some things.

When we are uneasy and want to make our hearts right with God, here is what has to happen first: the roof has to come off of our lives. We uncover our hearts let God see right into the middle of us and address what is there. He gets to hear about sin as we confess it, but He also gets to go as deep as He needs to to uncover whatever else is there--things that we may not even want to admit.


When we confess our sins, the barrier (or roof) between us and God is removed and we are forgiven because God has promised to forgive us as soon as we confess. Then God is given freedom to rummage around the "house" of our souls to see what else is there. Perhaps more sin is revealed and confessed and new life flows into our souls. As long the roof stays off, we interact with God openly. In this way we experience personal revival and are renewed day by day.

The next step is to bring down the walls that hide us from other people. It is truly difficult to tell others about our deliverance from sin, yet this is a powerful proof of our freedom and renewal. To stand before others and admit that once we were sinners and now we are cleansed reinforces our personal revival and brings hope to others.

Taking down the walls does not mean a graphic revelation of all that we have done wrong. Instead, it is a testimony of how God has delivered us from our old ways. I can tell others frankly that I have struggled with crazy jealousy toward a sister, and tell how the Lord delivered me from that sin, without going into the details of how corrupt I was in my thoughts and behavior before that deliverance. The emphasis is not on my sin, but on God's deliverance.

I want others to be glad with me that we have such a wonderful Savior and Deliverer. I want them to know that deliverance and peace are possible no matter what the sin is.

Brokenness does not refer to a crushed soul, but to the breaking down of the roof and walls that separate me from the Lord and from other people. Once these barriers are down my soul can soar up and out, expanding to be all that the Lord designed it to be. I can go freely wherever he wants me to go and do all that he has in mind for me to do.

Blessed is he whose sins are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the person whose sin

the Lord does not count against him

and in whose spirit is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away...

day and night your hand was heavy upon me...

Then I acknowledged my sin before you

and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said,"I will confess my sins to the Lord"--

and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Many are the woes of the wicked,

but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds

the man who trusts in him.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you

while you may be found...

--Excerpts from Psalm 32--