Want some increased clarity and discernment in your daily life?
Do you have a hard time hearing the “still small voice” whispering to you because there’s a horrendously loud and shrill ringing in your ears?
Is the true intent of your heart not getting through to others because your conflicting attitudes and actions are drowning out your message?
Tinnitus
Have you ever experienced the irritation of tinnitus? Knowing how to PRONOUNCE that word is hard enough, but living with it is even worse, LOL! The actual sensation can be quite disconcerting. It’s that ringing in your ears that you notice most often when there is no noise around you, yet you still hear a distinct high pitch buzz or hiss. Whether caused by listening to music or other content too loudly, aging, illness, medications, injections or anything else, it can be quite distracting and frustrating.
A recent experience pointed out a similar type of concept in the spiritual realm.
In-Home Concert from 8/15/2024
Last week, right as the Third Thursdays at Three in-home concert was about to go live, it became apparent that the audio seemed to suddenly have a very high pitched squeal (at the time, the cause for the sound was a mystery … stick around till the end and I’ll share what I think probably caused it, and you can let me know if you agree or have other things I should test out).
How ANNOYING for that to happen right before the “go live” button was pushed! Uggh! There is so often something like that to throw a wrench into the works after everything seems to be set up and working well right before the livestream begins. For whatever reason, it seems to be par for this course, continually keeping me on my toes I guess.
Every month, I learn more through livestreaming these concerts, and this month was absolutely no different! I had come online early, but no one had hopped on with me yet, so I wasn’t sure whether or not the high pitch was coming out live in the stream. Right at 3 PM, a comment in the chat let me know that sadly “yes” the squeal was coming through. Only later, when listening back to the YouTube stream replay did it become apparent that the sound was even WORSE on the other end of the stream than it had been on my end!
Not knowing what had suddenly caused the ruckus, it seemed best to try to reboot the equipment and try again, but for that to happen, it was necessary to dump out of the YT stream. Unfortunately, in stopping the stream, there was no way to join/begin that scheduled livestream again. In trying to go back online, apparently the stream I used was set to private by default (which in the end was a blessing, because no one would have wanted to be there for the next hour plus as I tried to do what I could to fix any issues, while TRYING to stay focused and just SING!!!) I wasn’t sure whether or not anyone could see me, but I carried on nonetheless.
Regardless of what was actually CAUSING the disturbance, the question became whether it was possible to salvage ANYTHING from that concert footage. In watching the videos after recording live, much of the early part had a TERRIBLE squeal that made it impossible to listen comfortably. The guitar was WAY too quiet to hear, etc.
HELP!
It just needed HELP!
So the next several days focused on trying to use noise cancellation, volume and other effects to try to make most of the songs at least tolerable, and editing out parts where I was having so much trouble focusing, that mistakes seemed to be flowing more readily than the songs themselves, LOL!
Well, FINALLY, after quite some effort, a pretty sweet little concert video was able to be salvaged, PTL (and is now up on the Shining River YouTube channel at shiningriver.com/youtube). I’ll put a direct link in the description. The original livestream link is still active (the most recent stream under the “Live” link on my YT channel), and God bless those who have stopped by to watch it. Feel free to check it out, but DON’T listen long or with the volume high!!!
Editing this all (and having to listen to the raw footage to get rid of the noise) left me with ringing in my ears for a couple of days due to that crazy high frequency…. Of course, if you haven’t heard it, you can listen to a little bit to see the nasty squeal that was serving as such a hindrance.
Thank the Lord for the software that made it possible to fix some of it and make it accessible for others to access and absorb the concert itself.
Hearing Hindrances
The whole thing got me thinking of what a good word picture this was of our spiritual lives in some ways.
It’s almost as if some of us WANT to hear the Lord’s voice, but we think He’s not communicating with us. Perhaps one of the reasons we’re not HEARING Him is not only because He has a “still, small voice”, but also because our own sin and error are screaming in our ears so loudly that we can’t hear much else.
Or maybe WE are trying to communicate the Gospel to those around us, but the “noise” of our fleshliness (attitudes, hypocrisy, etc.) are drowning out our words so that what others are hearing most loudly is a shrill and overwhelming high-pitched sound.
I am grateful that in the spiritual realm, Jesus is able, by His blood, to cover over our sin when we submit to Him, and He cancels out the “noise” of that, so that He can use us to get His message across to others.
And beyond that, He might be way more pleased to not NEED to use any spiritual “noise cancellation” of the effects of our sin. He’d likely take more pleasure in changing our very hearts so that we are producing pure, unhindered spiritual “music” in the first place. Similar to my desire to find out the cause of that squeal and FIX it so it doesn’t happen next time. Like when Jesus would say “Go, and sin no more”. He wants to HEAL and FIX our brokenness.
May He graciously cause the music of our lives to be unhindered be any squeal or distortion, so that the purity of His Gospel can be preached and heard clearly.
May He, in effect, stop the squeal in our hearts, in our local churches, in His Church at large and in our governments/cultures.
Clarity and Focus
Because of the distractions during that concert, there were a lot of things that I totally forgot to mention. One was that the day of the concert (August 15) was actually the one year anniversary of a day that began MANY challenging and memorable moments for me and my loved ones. Last year, on that day, I was suddenly whisked out of town for eight weeks. One day I was singing worship at church, and the next I was getting ready to fly to Florida to help care for my mother and stepfather. Anyone who knows me well will remember that sudden change of plans and how it seemed like I dropped off the face of the earth for a while.
Leading up to that time, I had begun actively writing a blog to process and express some of the things that happened while spending time with my father for a couple of weeks prior to his death earlier that year. Now, spending moments with my Mom and stepfather (and sister), I had time early in the mornings or late in the evenings to focus on seeking the Lord, and beginning my new website, which now is a hub for so much of my content (manna.shiningriver.com). My early writings were inspired by those precious moments with the Lord as He guided us all through turbulent waters. This past year has been such a remarkable testament to His goodness and grace in all of our lives.
Are your ears ringing?
Funny thing, my sister JUST texted me a pic of my Mom having and EYE exam as I finished the last paragraph, and I laughed, having just typed something about them. I asked her “were your ears ringing”? LOL. What a funny expression. And so very appropriate for this particular topic.
It’s so funny, this whole thing reminds me of a little series I had done earlier this year about “listening”. This word about the squeal seems related, so I’m going to include this in that blog series. If our ears “ring” in the way of that expression above, may it be because our Lord has us on His heart (does He know us well enough to be talking about us?).
And when any high pitched shrillness is a distraction, muddying the waters or causing us to lose our focus, my He STOP the squeal within us, give us His peace, clarity and simplicity, so that we can effectively communicate it with others. His love is pure, and deep; and so many miss it because the world clamors and coerces us into following after things that are less than His best.
Mystery Solved?
As far as what was CAUSING that squeal during the concert in the first place, I had suspected several things might be the culprit. Maybe a wrong setting in my software (which has been a constant challenge for me) or maybe my guitar battery was dead or something. No time to check it or fix anything during the concert….
So fast forward a few days, and I’m at church setting up for playing with the worship team. I plug in everything, and low and behold I hear that nasty little squeal again! Yikes, it WAS my battery! Praise the Lord for solving my mystery. I changed the battery before the service, and everything worked again. Looking back, I’m glad the battery died when I was doing my concert, and not in the middle of the Church service.
And adding to our word pictures, is it possible that some of our spiritual squealing is due to having LOW BATTERIES? Are we running on empty. Are we trying to do things in our own power and not realizing that without the Holy Spirit’s power, we will not only be ineffective, our own works will be like singing with a high shrill tone distracting anyone who would hear?
Wrapping it Up
So, I ask again: Do you have a hard time hearing the “still small voice” whispering to you because there’s a horrendously loud and shrill ringing in your ears?
Is the true intent of your heart not getting through to others because your conflicting attitudes and actions are drowning out your message?
Maybe sit in the stillness with the Lord, knowing His goodness. Draw near to Him and allow the Holy Spirit to empower you before running off to do what you think He wants you to do. Maybe seek for Him to stop the squeal in your heart, so that the beautiful music of Jesus’ heart can flow in and through you…. Sounds like a plan to me;).
Here is a link to the In-Home Concert replay from 8/15/2024: