To Bell or not to Bell
15 November 2006
Hi Guys. Fred here.
To Bell or not to Bell
There was an article about bells in the Sunday Life Magazine (Sun Herald) on October 15. The main story line was about how wealthy Englishmen in the 16th Century set up home gymnasiums based on the ropes of church bells. Apparently they’d picked up that Bell ringers had snazzy and enviable physiques. How to emulate that? Simple! Set up a room in your house and, using pulleys, create an imitation of the ropes of the bell ringers. And while all the action might have produced bodies that looked like Adonis, the people exercising those ropes did not produce any sound. Therefore the weights on the ropes became known as dumbbells.
That caught my attention because I’ve long had the thought that a lot of my religious rope pulling wasn’t producing any sound either. At least not in the place it really matters. By that I mean to say that the aim of religious behaviour is to produce the bell sound of joy and praise and worship to God.
As a kid almost 100% of my religious energy and behaviour was about making an impression on God. I tried hard. Really hard. The bottom line was that I wanted him to take notice of me. The theory was that if I made enough noise in his presence then he’d look kindly on me and bestow his blessing upon me. So I did all sorts of things – mostly advocated and encouraged by the institution of which I was a part.
I served at the altar. Helped the nuns and brothers. Attended mass regularly. Didn’t eat meat on Fridays. Said the Rosary. Prayed to Mary and the saints. Tried (very badly) to keep the ten commandments of God and the six commandments of the church. Did lots of good stuff (badly negated by more than my share of bad behaviour). All with one aim. To make a noise in the presence of God that might earn his “yes”.
It looked good. Seemed very spiritual. But missed the mark entirely. Jesus was once asked by the most religious and devout Jewish leaders: “What must we do to do the work of God?” To which he replied: “This is the work of God… to believe in the one the Father has sent”.
A shattering, smashing insight. If you have been, like me, a person who has invested a lot of energy in establishing a “credibility account” with God it’s a shock to the system to discover you’ve been barking up the wrong tree.
Since Calvary (and before actually) God the Father has had one touchstone for sound and music acceptable in his presence. What is it? He keeps asking us: “What are you doing with my Son? How are you responding to my Son? Have you received the Son as Saviour and as Lord? That and that alone is what is pure heavenly music to my ears!”
It’s trust in Jesus that makes us bell ringers. All the other stuff reveals that we’re dumbbells! Hell’s bells…it gets us nowhere.
Pastor Fred
Hi Guys. Fred here.
To Bell or not to Bell
There was an article about bells in the Sunday Life Magazine (Sun Herald) on October 15. The main story line was about how wealthy Englishmen in the 16th Century set up home gymnasiums based on the ropes of church bells. Apparently they’d picked up that Bell ringers had snazzy and enviable physiques. How to emulate that? Simple! Set up a room in your house and, using pulleys, create an imitation of the ropes of the bell ringers. And while all the action might have produced bodies that looked like Adonis, the people exercising those ropes did not produce any sound. Therefore the weights on the ropes became known as dumbbells.
That caught my attention because I’ve long had the thought that a lot of my religious rope pulling wasn’t producing any sound either. At least not in the place it really matters. By that I mean to say that the aim of religious behaviour is to produce the bell sound of joy and praise and worship to God.
As a kid almost 100% of my religious energy and behaviour was about making an impression on God. I tried hard. Really hard. The bottom line was that I wanted him to take notice of me. The theory was that if I made enough noise in his presence then he’d look kindly on me and bestow his blessing upon me. So I did all sorts of things – mostly advocated and encouraged by the institution of which I was a part.
I served at the altar. Helped the nuns and brothers. Attended mass regularly. Didn’t eat meat on Fridays. Said the Rosary. Prayed to Mary and the saints. Tried (very badly) to keep the ten commandments of God and the six commandments of the church. Did lots of good stuff (badly negated by more than my share of bad behaviour). All with one aim. To make a noise in the presence of God that might earn his “yes”.
It looked good. Seemed very spiritual. But missed the mark entirely. Jesus was once asked by the most religious and devout Jewish leaders: “What must we do to do the work of God?” To which he replied: “This is the work of God… to believe in the one the Father has sent”.
A shattering, smashing insight. If you have been, like me, a person who has invested a lot of energy in establishing a “credibility account” with God it’s a shock to the system to discover you’ve been barking up the wrong tree.
Since Calvary (and before actually) God the Father has had one touchstone for sound and music acceptable in his presence. What is it? He keeps asking us: “What are you doing with my Son? How are you responding to my Son? Have you received the Son as Saviour and as Lord? That and that alone is what is pure heavenly music to my ears!”
It’s trust in Jesus that makes us bell ringers. All the other stuff reveals that we’re dumbbells! Hell’s bells…it gets us nowhere.
Pastor Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 2:08 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Dad!
I thank God all the time for His ability to use you to talk to me. Most especially when I really need it. This weeks edition of Cross purposes was just what I wanted to hear. Thanks. Love you plenty. You have and always will be in my prayers.
-Bassey Ekeng
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