A year of hearing?

Akouo has been up for about a year and two days. Although it depends if you count the initial e-mail conversation leading up to it, in which case Akouo has existed for longer than that.


I find that at this juncture of my life, I must remember not to play the blame game, although I think, in many cases, that I am far more likely than others to put the blame for any mishap on myself. Again, this is speculation and something I must be careful not to take too seriously.

But whether or not I am prone to blaming others is not the main point. The thing is, blaming anyone--whether myself or another--inevitably shifts God out of the picture, or at least into the sidelines. I must remember the lessons of John 9 (that God may be glorified through the man's blindness) and Joseph (that God may use for good, that which is meant for evil).

Ours is the God of inextinguishable purpose, who is there in the darkest of days. I think Eugene Peterson rendered it well when he set the final words of Ezekiel in large font, in The Message;

YAHWEH SHAMMAH (the LORD is there)


Akouo means 'to hear' and at the top of this page its implications are noted:

1. to attend to, consider what is or has been said
2. to understand, perceive the sense of what is said

Sometimes it would seem that God's apparent silence is due to our deliberate deafness.


Practising for this coming weekend's trip to Malacca, and watching the musicians come in slowly to fill the empty spaces during the parents' worship rehearsal, I began to see life as a jam session.

And there are two senses of hearing while jamming. One is to hear for emptiness, and find a way to fill it, to layer the music so the overall effect is complete.

The other is to hear the correct sound. To hear the band leader over the drum, no matter how driving the beat may be. To hear the lead guitar, even if it's only an acoustic played over several electric guitars.

Thankfully life is a jam session, where mistakes are not the end of all things. But also, there is a goal and that goal is perfection, just as a band practises to play flawlessly. And as with a jam session, there is a concert coming up, and the time to get ready is limited.


Akouo.

Into a year of deeper, more perceptive hearing. Here we go.