Friday, October 23, 2015

Dissonance

By Lara Cook
To walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.  Colossians 1:10

Dictionary.com defines dissonance as: inharmonious or harsh sound; discord; cacophony; Music; a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion; an unresolved, discordant chord or interval; disagreement or incongruity.
Musical composers put dissonant chords in music on purpose all the time.  But any musician knows that when you are playing music and you come across a dissonant chord, it always makes you stop and double check the music.  It is a tense and unstable sound and it usually does not sound quite right to the ear until it is resolved. It is incomplete.
Dissonance in our lives is the same way.  Is there something in your life that is just not quite right and you know it but you just keep going anyway?  One of the definitions for dissonance above is being in a state of unrest and needing completion.  That is exactly how our lives feel when we have dissonance in our life.  Something is out of harmony with the rest of our life.  It may be an attitude, a behavior or a relationship.  A sense of conviction and unrest equals the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, pressing us to resolve the dissonance.  Just as a musician stops and examines the music when they play a dissonant chord, we need to examine things when we experience dissonance in our lives.  Dissonance should make us re-evaluate what is going on.  It should make us examine whether or not something needs to change, or if we need to be more careful in some area of our lives.  Do we need to re-focus and make some new commitments?  What needs to change to resolve the dissonance?  Dissonance creates a longing for harmony and wakes us up to weaken future dissonance. It leaves us desiring to be complete.
Dissonant chords can be beautiful.  Even though they are inharmonious and a harsh sound, they resolve beautifully.  They serve a purpose.  In fact, some of the most well-known musical pieces in history are so well known because of the dissonance included which is the key element of the piece. The dissonance in our lives can resolve beautifully too.  God never wastes any moment of our lives.  He uses every breath we take and every moment we are alive for His glory in some way.  They all serve a purpose. He promises that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28 
God will use dissonance in our lives as a part of the beautiful masterpiece He is composing.  He incorporates it into the melodious chords of our existence and gives purpose to every second of our lives.  All of our lives, every moment, He will use to complete us in Him. 

Scripture to Claim:  
Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it. 1 Peter 3:11 NLT

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