Wednesday, January 19, 2011

This Present Dissonance

I have heard life to be compared to a symphony, emphasizing all the different musicians playing together and making music and somehow it sounds beautiful. I like that.
I like better the idea of life like a piece of music. There are millions of pieces of music that exist, and an infinite number that can be written.
The melody is what happens in our lives, there are ups and downs. There are times when the jumps are difficult and other times it feels like we are just gently drifting up or down. There are times when we stay on many whole notes tied together and other times we are jumping through thirty-second notes in a quick two four beat.
Then there is harmony. Beautifully orchestrated, everything fits together. The composer, that author of our life, has chosen and put together everything just as he chose for it to be.
In music it is important for it to feel like it is going somewhere. The sweet melodies are nice, they are easy, but if the piece is to become real and passionate, there must be dissonance in it somewhere.  In music dissonance is found everywhere. The fourth, the second, the suspension, the chord that feels like it need to go somewhere. The leading tone is named after it's dissonance. Without the piece feels like it hasn't gone anywhere.
If our lives can be represented by music, there is dissonance in them. There is tough situations and difficult times that we all experience. There is where we are and where we should be. There is times when nothing makes sense, but the compose, the author of our life, has chose each point of dissonance and constructed in unique way that will lead us to where we need to be complete.
Cadences happen throughout music. At the end of a phrase, a verse, and the piece. There are ones that sound complete and some that don't and then there are the ones that sound like they are going to be complete, but at the last moments set you for some more. A deceptive cadence adds color to a piece, and maybe best represents when we leave the world here on earth and enter heaven. It appears that it is almost over, that there is nothing left, but then there is more.
 At the end of a piece of music there is a cadence, the final ending, it feels complete, that the music is fully resolved. Some piece end abruptly and others have long drawn out back and fourth chords tying in everything.
As Christian we know our composer and as each composer has an almost predicable style we know our composer end the music of all Christians in a similar way. All of our songs, we are told, end in front of the throne of the Lamb of God with an everlasting repeat of Hallelujahs and Holy Holy Holy.
Whatever the dissonance is happening in the music today, we are sure God will bring it to completion.
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus