Bebo

Jim Diffin <Jim_D_>

"Revolutionaries...dreaming once again..."

	The Lights and Sounds of God...	761 days ago
	It's funny, I never used to blog this much before. It seems quite ironic that on my homepage I said that I've always had a passion for writing and this masters will let me do just that. It seems that it is facilitating just that dream but maybe not in the way I originally thought... I was having lunch the other day with someone who has become a most excellent friend of mine over a very short period of time. I say a short period of time, I've known him for over a year now, but we've only really got chatting over the last couple of weeks. I say weeks but that makes an immediate assumption that whoever is reading this blog knows what a week is. I could describe it as seven days, but again, that makes the assumption that you know what a day is. I could describe a day perhaps better in hebrew by using the word yom; a root of the word meaning hot. So a day or a yom was literally "the hot hours" or the period between sunrise and sunset. Of course, for us today, this varies spatially and I've no idea whether you are reading this blog in Northern Ireland or Norway. The reason I began with that brief exegesis on the definition of "time" is because thats exactly what my friend and I were talking about; time. You see a while back, both of us had read an interesting point concerning "eternity". You see, I think eternity itself is a concept which its really difficult for us to comprehend. Its more than just a really long time, it's eternity. The reason I think it is difficult for us to comprehend eternity is because we try to frame it within our human perception of time and that just isn't possible. The interesting thing we had read was that if Heaven exists outside our comprehension of what time is, do we experience eternity all at once? If in heaven there is no perception of time, then there is no perception of time passing and if there is no perception of time passing then there can be no perception of eternity...if you follow. At this point my mind just gives up; like when you give a calculator a problem which will resolve as infinity, it just gives an error message. You see, we reached the conclusion that, like many things, we simply aren't capable of understanding these Godly things. I'm a real fan of the author Raymond E Feist. Ray writes really vivid fantasy novels set in a world he calls Midkemia. Midkemia starts to become plagued with unnatual "rifts" which transport people or creatures across whole worlds, whole dimensions, whole times. At one point in Rays writing, he describes a place which he calls "The City Forever"; A beautiful city full of gardens, huge buildings and squares. The "City Forever" exists outside of normal space and time and from it, two young adventurers in one of his stories stand and behold the creation of the Universe itself. I was thinking about the City Forever this afternoon and, to be honest, I never expected it to inspire a blog. Then, however, as my life has a funny way of working out at the minute, I became inspired by a song. You see, this band that I go on about so much that you are sure to be bored already; Angels and Airwaves, have a myspace. At some stage, one of their new songs was accidentaly uploaded onto their myspace and was removed shortly after. Nonetheless, the song has made its way onto youtube and I was listening to it this evening. When I listened to it, I realised that everything was once more falling into place in the cosmic jigsaw that is my mind. The conversation with my friend, the recollection of the City Forever and 'Heaven' by Angels and Airwaves formed a kind of triptych in my mind. Its this tripartite notion in my head which I am presently writing about. I guess it's easy to look at something like 'the matrix' or 'v for vendetta' and draw very obvious spiritual comparrisons therein, but with Feist, its more of a struggle to peel away the veneer of superb fiction and plunge the depths of his spirituality. When I first read his Midkemmia series, it seemed to have more of an almost nietzschean notion of divinity; that a god could not exist without someone to worship them and that as society turned away from spirituality it inadvertently 'killed' its god. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but look at the idea of the City Forever; this beautiful city full of gardens, huge buildings and squares and draw biblical comparissons with Heaven. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband...It was filled with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious gem, crystal clear like jasper. Its walls were broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels...And the angel showed me a pure river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. Revelation Chapter's 21 and 22 Returning to the converstaion I had with my friend; the second section of this triptych, if Heaven does exist outside of normal space and time, much like the fictional City Forever, then can we, on reaching Heaven, look back and observe the timeline of which we are no longer a part? This is where the human mind, I think, hits the wall. We've no way of comprehending this thought. Indeed, we've no way of knowing whether or not its even true, until we get there. Perhaps, when we do experience eternity, we experience it at the apocalyptic point which John wrote about when he said; For the old world and its evils are gone forever." And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" Revelation Chapter 21 If thats the case, then there is no timeline to look back upon. My mind, however, was stirred by the thought that when we reach Heaven, either through plain sight or by a perfect comprehenion of 'everything' we will be able to 'see' the moment of creation, much as Feist's two adventuring hero's did. This is the third part of my picture. The lights and sounds of God And the hair it stands on the back of our necks And I swear it shows Heaven must be just like this Heaven by Angels and Airwaves This band is not talking about what Heaven definitively is. In fact, what they are describing is thoroughly earthly. In the middle of the chorus they refer to a mess as like our world when we're the last ones left. They talk about hostile lands in the first verse and in the second verse they sing; Do you see the hills beneath the clouds The stars, its trail to lead you out Can you sense the pain thats everywhere And if you try you'll never care ...and speaking from a biblically based point of view; I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever." Revelation Chapter 21 The point is, maybe they don't have to be singing about what Heaven is. This band is singing about a point on earth where they have reached a certain "state of awareness". A point where everything around them slows down and they drink in the world, they marvel at creation, they marvel at the sights and sounds of God. This "heightened state of awareness" as I've called it might be found atop a mountain over-looking a beautiful city, in the middle of a field looking up at the stars, looking over the ocean at sunset or in a mother looking into the eyes of her newborn baby. Truely, I know I've felt that before and I hope and pray that you have also. This is what Angels and Airwaves are talking about and this is where it fits into my picture. Those moments when we simply become 'aware', when closed eyes are opened, when we have that epiphany, may well be what we experience when we reach heaven - and I swear it shows, Heaven must be just like this. This is one of those blogs where I have no answers; merely more questions, but I guess thats ok when you are thinking about something as beyond us as Heaven. A band called Yellowcard wrote a song called 'Lights and Sounds' where they encouraged us to "Stop, turn, take a look around at all the lights and sounds." I can't help, however, but smile when I think that someday I'm going to Stop, turn, take a look around at all the lights and sounds of God...
	posted by Jim Diffin