The Original Note

What you say is an echo of something deep inside of you.

Emerson is famous for saying, “Nature is emblematic of the spiritual.” The truth is everything we do is emblematic of something else… something that’s inside of us, something that’s ringing, sounding the “original note”.

When the suffering comes will it strike a chord of complaint or an intentional gratefulness?
When the accolades come will the reply be egotistical or deferential?
When the criticism comes, constructive or not, will it amplify bitterness or thoughtfulness?

What’s that note? What is it sounding? Whatever it sounds will reverberate throughout your life. Jesus said, (paraphrased) “It’s not the outside stuff that makes you unclean, it’s what comes from the inside.”

We deal too often with the echoes. We’re so focused on them. It’s understandable to a degree. We need to see, touch, taste, smell and hear. God chose to clothe us in the physical. But Jesus was always moving people from the physical to the spiritual. (i.e. healing the paralytic and then forgiving his sins, alluding to the rebuilding of the temple and its connection with Jesus being resurrected, cursing of the fig tree, its subsequent withering and the religious system dying, etc...) God is always moving us deeper, turning our hearts inward to the source. What or 'Who' is your source? Life will never be ‘in tune’ if the source is you. The echoes will be confusing and noisy. But if you’re quiet… If you’re aware… If you choose… God will sound the “original note” and then what you say and do and live will become beautiful harmonics reverberating in endless praise.