Читать книгу The Power of Sound - Kenneth Stanley Jr. - Страница 5

Sound Moves Us

In 1998 my wife, Dusty and I, decided to try something we had never done before. We were newly married, and had nothing to tie us down. Every weekend we would find something to appease our adventurous selves. So we decided to try a NASCAR race. I watched the races on TV and was a Dale Earnhardt fan, but hadn’t got to experience it first hand. Dusty didn’t really have an interest, but was willing to go along for the sake of saying she had done that. Bristol Motor Speedway was just a couple hours drive from where we lived, so we figured this would be a check mark on our bucket list.

As we were entering the grounds and fighting the crowd, I noticed some stands set up selling earplugs. Not only were they selling earplugs, but they were $1 per pair. My thoughts were, “This is crazy! I’m not paying $1 for a pair of these”. So we bypassed the earplugs and headed on to our seats. As we were working our way into the stadium the sun was beaming down with hot rays, and the heat reflecting off the stands did not help. The pit crews were getting ready to start the cars. When the first car started I could not believe how loud it was. The power of that engine was indescribable! It was sweet and loud with lots of power under the hood! When your body vibrates from the rumble of an engine, let’s just say it’s an awesome feeling.

Reaching speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour behind a 750 horsepower engine, each car was nothing but raw power! After the first car started, then the second, third and fourth revved up…well before I knew it, forty of these 750 horsepower machines were ready to race.

Dusty and I couldn’t leave our seats quick enough to go get earplugs! It was too loud! The sound of those cars wasn’t just loud, but painful to our ears. Everyone was wearing them except us. It looked like thousands of Frankensteins with all the plugs sticking out of everyone’s ears. When we got ours, we went back in for the race. We made it back in right before they dropped the flag to begin. When the pace car came off the track, it was ‘hammer time’ for those cars. Race mode was on and the sound of those cars doubled!

Even with the sound muffled in my ears I could tell the sound was off the charts. I was curious, so I took out my earplugs just to get an unfiltered perspective. Everything that I could hear sounded like a ringing in my ears. It didn’t even resemble cars racing on a NASCAR track that I had heard on TV. It was completely unbearable without earplugs. This made me think on the power of those cars. That the more power that was on the track, the louder the sound got.

There is a sound that comes with power! Think about the force of a jet engine screaming across the blue sky, and the sound that it produces. The loudness of the space-shuttle getting ready for lift off sends forth deep echoes. There is a massive reverberation that comes with powerful things.

And there is a direction to sound, too. Did you ever think about how a train sounds when it is coming in the direction that you are standing? You will hear it before you see the power. If you are outside in your yard and all of a sudden you hear a sound in the sky and you look but do not see anything, then a plane has flown by. You always hear the sound of the power first. Sound always precedes power, and sound makes us turn toward it. Our curiosity makes us want to know what made the sound, or better yet who made the sound?

Sound Precedes Power

Our ears were made to hear sound, and our bodies can feel and make sense of the waves of sound that are around us. Sometimes we might not even notice sounds, but they are still there. Sometimes we are moving so fast that we miss the smaller sounds. Nevertheless, it is still there. Other times, we cannot get away from the powerful sounds that are so loud they demand our attention.

The ear is an amazing organ. It takes the vibrations from the sounds we hear, and turns them into electrical impulses that move through our nerves to our brains. The brain then translates the information into what we call a “sound”. The amazing thing is that we receive these vibrations that the brain recognizes and we somehow communicate. There is so much science behind all of this, but it is amazing to think our God had all of this in mind when He was creating man. He is a mighty God!

Have you ever thought about how easily we think up words to say, and then say them? Then have somebody hear those same sounds we just made, decode our noises and understand the message? What an amazing thing it is that we can talk and listen. Most of the time we do this so involuntary that it’s not even thought about. This wows me to a great extent to even try to wrap my brain around it.

God is all about sound. Have you ever noticed that in the word of God, sound always precedes power? God turns our heads toward power.

When I was writing my story about the NASCAR race my wife and I went to, I thought of Exodus Chapter 19. This is where God shows up on Mount Sinai, just before he gives Moses the Ten Commandments.

Look at Exodus 19: 16-18:

And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people in the camp trembled.

And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

And Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

Here is a great example of sound going before power! There is no greater sound than a sound our Maker made in creation. Talk about an introduction from on high! First there was thunder in verse 16…a sound! Now look at verse 18. He descended upon it in fire. Wow! A good example of sound preceding power!