Musings of a Follower

Way before these days of streaming movies, podcasts, music, and crazy cat videos a man named Claude Shannon was hard at work laying the foundation for these modern marvels. In 1948 he wrote a book entitled Mathematical Theory of Information. In this book he put forth what is known today as “Information Theory.” This theory defines the limits of recovering signals from noise-contaminated channels. This makes possible the “lossless” communication we enjoy in our media today.

Important elements of this theory are his definitions of “signal” and “noise.” “Signal” is the ordered information intentionally sent by the sender while “noise” is the unwanted, or unpredictable modifications which corrupt that signal.

How can Information Theory help us in making wise decisions? By helping us identify two things.

The Noise

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

John 10:27

As Christ followers, we are His sheep. By the fact of our new nature, birthed in us after we are washed from our sin – and purchased – by His blood, we are new creatures. With that new creation, we also have new abilities, one of which is the ability to “hear” His voice.

I have never audibly heard Jesus but there are many times I “hear” Him in my spirit speaking through Scripture. I have never regretted trusting and obeying that Voice the times I took the time to heed it. I also know there are were also many times He probably spake and I did not hear Him because I wasn’t listening.

As I look back over my life I see times I could have made better decisions – opportunities missed and pitfalls I could have avoided had I heard His still, small voice. As I recently sought the Lord about this, I found this verse in Psalm 143:8

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning;
for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk;
for I lift up my soul unto thee.

The Psalms often depict the human soul as a cup seeking to be filled. This metaphor fits the human experience like a glove. We can spend so much time and effort lifting our “cups” to any number of spigots of promised pleasures and enlightenment.

On the other hand, lifting up our soul to the Lord on a regular basis gives Him the opportunity to cause us to know the way in which we should walk.

King David – military commander, king, man after God’s own heart – was the author of Psalm 143. He knew the secret of making wise decisions and seizing God-given opportunities – lifting his soul unto the Lord.

Do you want real joy? Lift you soul up to the Lord – this was David’s habit.

Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

Psalm 86:4

Are you plagued by the enemies of your soul? Like David, lift up your soul to the Lord.

Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed,
let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Psalm 25:1,2

Sadly, most of what we lift our soul to in this day of endless diversions do not deliver the information we need. Endless scrolling on our phones, binging on TV series, and achieving virtual victories in byte-based battles are just a few examples. Done to excess (which we tend to do), these sources deliver just plain noise.

The Bible uses a different word for “noise.” It is called “vanity.”

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity;
and quicken thou me in thy way.

Psalm 119:37

There is a connection between avoiding vanity and knowing how to walk in His way – not our own. The good news we find in this verse is the Lord can help us lose our appetite for vain things if we give Him the opportunity to do so – which is what this post is all about.

Vanity is not a good thing.

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD?
or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully.

Psalm 24:3.4

At best, lifting up our soul to vanity will strain our relationship with the Lord. At worst, it can mutilate our souls.

What is vanity? Of course, it includes the obvious evil things like immorality and porn. In the Old Testament, God called the murderous, infectious idolatry the Israelites caught from their neighbors vanity as well.

However vanity is often more subtle than that. The word can mean anything that is desolating, ruinous, or decreases the potential of our life. This destruction does not happen all at once. More often than not, vanity brings a gradual decay – not a sudden collapse.

In John 10:10 Jesus tells us that the thief comes only to steal, kill ,and destroy. You can look at this list as a progression, a growing boldness, in the attitude of the culprit. It all starts with “stealing.” This word for “steal” does not refer to an armed robbery, but rather a purloining – a slow, stealthy snatching of value from our lives.

And then the joy of your salvation is gone before you noticed. The voice of the Lord loses its volume. Reading the Word becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. Worship becomes a bore.

Vanity is a trickster. It has many disguises. It may appear as a harmless diversion, or even a helpful friend, when it is really a bondage waiting to happen. It knows how to get around any rules we set for our life.

It all depends on to who or what you lift your soul.

Here is my poor definition: vanity can be an item, a practice or even a relationship which – like the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden – promises much enjoyment and great enlightenment, but only delivers calamity and loss in the end.

The Solution

Vanity is a trickster. It has many disguises. It may appear as a harmless diversion, or even a helpful friend, when it is really a bondage waiting to happen. It knows how to get around any rules we set for our life.

What does it mean to lift up our soul to the Lord? How can we recognize vanity?

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Philippians 4:4-8

Philippians is the one of my favorite books. In this letter one can sense a friendship between Paul and these believers which leads him to share some secrets of living a life of fellowship with the Lord as well as with each other. In this passage we see some New Testament clues to living a “noise-free life.”

Rejoice in the Lord. Be calmly cheerful in the Lord, not just in church or during devotions – but “alway” – on every occasion, forevermore, as a habit, no matter the circumstance. To emphasize the point, Paul repeats it – “again, I say, rejoice.”

To me, this is like a reprise of the last verse of Psalm 27:

“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”

If you think about it, waiting on the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord, and lifting our souls up to the Lord are not that different – just various facets of the same priceless diamond (“pearl of great price,” if you prefer) of our relationship with our Savior.

In Psalm 25:1 (mentioned above), when David was confronted with his enemies, he lifted his soul to the Lord. More than ever, he needed to “know the way wherein he should walk.” Besides Psalm 119, Psalm 25 has the most appeals to God for direction than any other psalm. David pleads with God to help him to know His paths, guide him, cause him to flow in His ways, and poke him real hard when he strays.

Another key word in Psalm 25 is “wait.” The Hebrew word for this means “to hope for” or “expect” but it can also mean “to bind” or ” to twist.” with this word we see that waiting on God is an active, not passive, practice of meditating on His promises. It is a “twisting” and “binding” of His thoughts, His Word, with our soul – giving the Holy Spirit a chance to quicken them in our hearts, renew our minds, direct our steps, grow our faith, and transform our lives.

We see this principle in Psalm 25:5:

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me:
for thou art the God of my salvation;
on thee do I wait all the day.

Just like the above – waiting on the Lord “alway,” meditating on His word, turning away from the noise – helps us to hear His signal – clear and uncorrupted. As we do, we will find the power to be mild and gentle to all men – even our enemies. Remember, the Lord is at hand! (Matthew 24:48; Luke 24:45).

Be anxious for nothing. Anxiety can be a major source of “noise” – clouding our judgment and corrupting God’s signal. A lot of anxiety can also be a result of lifting up our souls to vanity – a love for a position, respect, status, riches, or the worry of losing a friend.

It would seem that King Solomon – being the wisest, richest, and most influential leaders of his time – would have few anxieties. In the book of Ecclesiastes we find the opposite. His riches and pursuits of pleasure became simply a chasing after the wind – a vexation of his spirit – a noisy business indeed! He found that chasing things “under the sun” was so disillusioning that he declared that “all is vanity.”

On the other hand, casting our anxieties on, and rejoicing in, the Lord helps us to consistently live “above the sun.” Centering our minds on things above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God and giving more care to building our fortune in heaven than earth is the way we sail above the noise of the temporal and live in the fresh, calm air of the eternal.

Pray about everything. Make a list of all your troubles and turn that into your prayer list. One way of lifting our souls up to the Lord is to thankfully pour out our souls at His feet and lift our helpless, hapless, and empty vessels for Him to fill with the peace only He can give.

Take inventory. In Philippians 4:8,9 Paul closes this section with a command to think. The Greek word used for this means to “reckon,” “to estimate,” or to “take inventory” of what you allow to take up your thoughts – the media you consume, the things to which you lift up your soul. Is it “vanity” or not? Paul gives the Philippians (and us) a checklist to help evaluate the many things that attract our attention in this distraction-soaked world.

• Is it true? Does it track with the principles revealed in the Scriptures or not? We need to ask if the stories (whether fiction or nonfiction) we read, watch, and listen to reflect and honor Biblical principles. There can also be some reports of actual events that come to us from worldviews deliberately slanted away from a Biblical one. It is important to know how to do a “sniff test” for truth in all the narratives which enter our “eye-gates” and “ear-gates” before we allow them to guide our steps.
• Is it honest? This may sound like the same as being true but it is not. It means venerable, something that would be respected by anyone who might “catch” you thinking, watching, or doing something. What would their opinion of you be?
• Is it just? Is it righteous and equitable in the way it portrays others? Do its principles sync with God’s law? Natural law?
• Is it pure? Does it deepen reverence or excite lust? Does it incite a passion for a deeper relationship with our Creator or does it drag us a little closer to the gutter?
• Is it lovely? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Does it intrigue and engage us or insult and assault us with its appearance?
• Is it of good report? Is it something that is well spoken of and respected by people you trust?
• Is there any virtue, any praise in it? Does it increase your courage to stand for what is right, true, and praiseworthy? Does it spur you to change and become better or make you comfy with your status quo?

The Sum of the Matter

We live as saints in a noisy world. I don’t know if there has ever been a time in history when vanity can be so easily accessed. We need to recognize its many forms and be aware of its effects on us. As saints – those who called to live “above the sun” – let us not be shy in exercising the awesome privilege we have to enter the Holy of Holies through the blood of Christ and consistently lift our souls up to the living God. As we do, will find the noise of this world’s system growing dim, and His voice – His signal – shining bright to guide us on that perfect way.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face; 
And the things of things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
(From a poem by Helen Howarth Lemmel)

Feel free to comment below on your own experience overcoming “noise” and hearing God’s “signal.”