Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

I’m no communications enthusiast nor am I employed in any of its industries. I have little patience, in fact, beyond, “Where is the knob to turn this thing on?” But more and more as age takes its (hearing) toll, “WHERE IS THE KNOB TO TURN THIS THING UP?”

And trying to comprehend WIFI just makes me want my mother, although it helps that you (as in me and others like me) just have to plug the “router” thingy in and then find a local teenager to “set it up”.

In fact, if it weren’t for the skilled and patient tekkies at WordPress who have helped me on numerous occasions to “find the knobs” I’d be one sorry blog writer. Or not one at all, having given up long ago.

I would probably have to go back to the electric typewriter–mostly, I also confess, because my handwriting is so bad, anymore (having been spoiled by learning how to type back in high school), were I transported back to Sister Mary Penmanship’s class in third grade, I’d be painstakingly filling up the chalkboard after school with something along the lines of “Good penmanship is next to Godliness.”

That said, there is a wonderful communications metaphor that helps keeps me tuned into God’s frequency, these days. As it were. (I know, dorky metaphor, but I just had to.) It goes like this: “All signal no noise.”

ON ALL SIGNAL NO NOISE

Because I know several knowledgeable communications experts, they have patiently and on more than one occasion explained to me that this expression means that you know you are tuned in to the right frequency on your, say, radio, because the static will have disappeared–at much as is possible depending upon the time of day or night.

There are likely numerous other factors involved, but “tuning in,” I get, and keeping it simple when it comes to my knob-on, knob-off brand of explanation preferences, they get.

But the REAL point of this part of the post is that we can “tune into God,” too, and, thankfully, He is much easier to hear than even the most sophisticated of modern-day walkie-talkies mankind comes up with. More on this below.

And in this day of static of very different kinds in a world awash in distractions, (you pick the distraction: politics, dubious science, ever-morphing social fads, psychological operations, 14th century warfare with 21st century ordnance, or F: all of the above), we often find ourselves looking not so much for some–any–kind of “off” mechanism but for some refuge in which to not only collect our thoughts and locate some sanity but also, geez-o-Pete,  get some peace and quiet already!

But more importantly, a place away from the fray where we can figure out which transmissions are true.

I mean, every day in every way and place imaginable (including quantum places–i.e., the teeniest, tiniest of spaces–INSIDE us, even) the conflicting, confusing, cacophonous, CONSTANT noises all clamoring for our attention make us desperately seek a clear signal, ANY signal, that not only transmits truth but also is, in fact, THE truth.

Because there is So. Much. Deception.

And every day in every way more and more of the deceptions are exposed (at least before the truth gets censored) it give us increasing hope that we can find even utimate truth*.

I mean, isn’t that THE fundamental yearning of mind and heart no matter the context of the quest?

Not that there hasn’t always been deception swirling about, yanking our minds every which way but Sunday (as in God), but in our brave new 24/7/365 world of communications of one sort or another, external and internal, there is also much more information that can access our brain–soul, and spirit.

While we’re plugged in there, that is.

Of course some of that deception can facilitate good so we should stay tuned at lease some of the time.

For example, in the world of military tacticians there is a strategy called  “Ambiguity Increasing” that is one of a variety of “deception” tactics detailed in  Information Warfare: New Roles for Information Systems in Military Operations used to overcome the enemy without a shot, in the brave new world of psychologial operations, in the spirit of the following quote from famed military strategist Sun Tzu’s treatise, The Art of War, that serves as the epitaph for the manual:

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue an enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

But of course anything good can also be used for evil (think nuclear power, also think, well, increasing ambiguity!).

I mean just imagine all the damage that can be wreaked–and control wrested–if you can just fool enough of the people enough of the time…

ON THE WORLD’S NOISE

So there’s an incredible amount of deceptive noise (both literal and figurative) by way of innumeral communication devices and psychological operations that we have to deal with these days, little of it harmless, a LOT of it dangerous and dark–by design.

Anyway, I think we’ve all been introduced to enough of the darkness of evil’s intent by way of deceptive communications.

My ultimate focus is “God’s signal”.

ON GOD’S SIGNAL

God’s signal, coming from One God, one Source (His Word), one leading, directing, guiding, and inspiring Spirit (as in Holy), and One Son (as in Jesus) Who, as the “light come into the world” made it possible by His death, resurrection, and ascension back into Heaven for us to once again be reconciled with God and so that we can “hear Him” loud and clear. When we listen.

But the very best way I can communicate that to you–and me, too–is by quoting His own words on the matter through the Holy Spirit inspired anthology of books called the Bible.

NOTE: some think the Scriptures are merely myth and mysticism, but for just one (of myriad) challenges to that notion: IF the Bible is merely all that, WHY, then, is it usually among the first books to get tossed on the burn pile when totalitarians take over? Indeed, it’s happening right now in our world. Easy to find the reports.

Even the evil know there is SOMETHING powerful in those pages…

THE CLEAR TAKEAWAY

To God’s clear signal and how to tune in (no technical and technological know-how, knobs, or teenagers required) I pray that you will find rest and quiet in the following reminders, and that as you meditate on them, you will experience your tense, tired  shoulders easing down from your noise-pummelled ears as you experience that the gift of peace Jesus gave before His final days on earth is still available, no matter all the bad and ugly distrations “down here” in this day and every day.

Instructions:

1. Switch all the knobs, buttons, keys, routers, etc., off;
2. Sit a spell with God; and
3. Hear what He says to you (and me) today:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16)

The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever. (Psalm 119:160)

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge— (1 Timothy, 6:20)

But mostly, weary one (and weary me), hear Him Who is the Truth (the Way and the Life–John 14:6), and Who spent (and spent) His life on earth so we will spend ours in eternity with Him.

The ultimate in a peaceful refuge, lit by truth, powered by love.

No deception allowed.

Ever.

~~~~~

*Hmmm, considering the constant and intensifying influx–and input–of deception in the world, though it’s maddening, it is actually a very good thing, too, reminding me of this verse: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

For it is in times such as this, in the thick of the real existential war, i.e., good versus evil, that many people begin to “look up” for truth.

**For how to get connected to God, His Word, His Son, and His Holy Spirit (aka, become born again in the spiritual world) see here.

P.S. and you won’t need your mother anymore in eternity, either, that ideal and iconic symbol of aid and comfort down here (though we all, as mothers, fall short). Though, if she, like mine, always said “You’ll thank me one day” for what guidance she did give if sometimes we/I didn’t appreciate it at all, that will be our chance to do so in the warmth, light, unity, and peace of our new and eternal abode.