Submitted 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
