1 Peace in the Red Zone Matthew 11:28 30 Last week we began a new series on living in the red zone. Here we discussed the importance of living in this zone that we have while we are here on earth. The white part of this rope represents eternity that we live either with God or without him. Living with God, of course, is living eternity in heaven. Living without him is spending eternity in hell. We also spoke of the way we can effect where we will spend eternity by studying His unchanging word found here in the Bible. Studying His unchanging word and living a life full of Christ will ensure our presence in heaven with Him.
2 Well, what are the things in this life that will get in the way of keeping us from studying His word and living like Christ? What are the emotions we will have in this life that can prevent us from living with Him and for Him in this life and how does that affect how we will live with or without Him in the next life? So, for the next four weeks we will examine the emotions that can get in the way of our living a Christlike life and how it will affect our next life. In addition, we will examine the tools we have available to us to overcome the emotions that can prevent our living Christ like. Now, each of the tools we will look at will help us live Christlike but we will examine a differnt one each week in detail. So, for example, this week we will look at the negative emotion of anger and how it can prevent us from living Christlike. The tool we will look at is music and how it can prevent anger from taking its toll on us and how we live our life here on earth.
3 The negative emotion is anger, the tool we will look at is music and the result on this life is peace. Living in peace will help us live Christlike and will help ensure our place in eternity with God. So, let s look at anger. Anger is by nature a painful state of mind. Whenever we are angry, our peace of mind immediately disappears and even our body becomes tense and uncomfortable. We are so restless that we find it nearly impossible to sleep, and whenever we are able to sleep it is fitful and unrefreshing. It is impossible to enjoy ourself when we are angry, and even the food we normally find delicious seems unappetizing. Anger transforms even a normally good looking person into an ugly red faced monster. We grow more and more unhappy, and, no matter how hard we try, we cannot control our emotions.
4 Since it is impossible to satisfy all our desires or to prevent undesirable situations from arising, we need to find another way of relating to frustrated desires and unwanted occurrences. We need to become familiar with patient acceptance. Patience is a mind that is able to accept, fully and happily, whatever occurs. It is much more than just gritting our teeth and hanging in there. Being patient means to welcome wholeheartedly whatever arises, having given up the idea that things should be other than what they are. It is always possible to be patient; there are no circumstances so difficult that they cannot be accepted patiently, with an open, accommodating, and peaceful heart. When patience is present in our mind it is impossible for disturbing thoughts to gather strength. There are many examples of people who have
5 managed to practice patient acceptance even in the most difficult situations, such as under torture or in the final ravages of cancer. Although their body was damaged beyond repair, deep down their mind remained calm. By learning to accept the small difficulties and hardships that arise every day in the course of our lives, gradually our capacity for patience will grow and we shall come to know for ourself the deep happiness and freedom that true patience brings. If there is a way to improve an unpleasant, difficult situation, what point is there in being unhappy? On the other hand, if it is completely impossible to improve the situation or to fulfill our wishes, there is also no reason to get upset, for how will our becoming unhappy help? This line of reasoning is very useful, for we can apply it to any situation. Patient acceptance does not necessarily mean that we do not take practical steps to improve our situation. If it is possible to improve the situation, then
6 of course we should; but to do this we do not need to become unhappy and impatient. For example, when we have a headache there is no contradiction between practicing patience and taking an aspirin, but until the aspirin takes effect we need to accept whatever pain we feel with a peaceful and relaxed mind. If instead of accepting our present discomfort we become unhappy and fight against it, we shall just become tense, and as a result it will take longer to get rid of our headache. Until we achieve permanent inner peace, we cannot avoid unpleasant, frustrating situations and a certain amount of physical pain, but by training our mind to look at difficult situations in a more realistic manner, we can free ourselves from a lot of unnecessary mental pain.
7 Instead of reacting blindly under the control of an ingrained habit, such as anger, we should examine whether it is helpful or realistic to become unhappy at such times. We do not need to become unhappy just because things do not go our way. Although until now this has been our normal reaction to difficulties, once we acknowledge that it does not work we are free to respond in a more positive and realistic manner. So how do we train ourselves to react not with anger but with patients? How can we learn new ways of dealing with life when it does not go our way? Well, in addition to the other tools such as the Bible, Fellowship, Prayer and church, music is one way to calm our minds. And even though my choice of music to do this is contemporary Christian music, your choice may be
8 something entirely different, such as classical, country or, what I call Superclub. Music has the ability to sooth the soul, to transform anger into a peaceful acceptance of whatever life give you. Let s look at an example of what I mean. In the early 1900 s there was a boy, a young man actually, that was a soda jerk in a local drugstore in Virginia. His name has been lost to history unfortunately. He was known, however, for some great fountain drinks that he would mix up and all the customers liked what he made. The young man fell in love with the Pharmacist's daughter. When the pharmacists found out about this love affair, he fired the young soda jerk and kicked him out of his store with instructions to leave town and never show his face in the store again.
9 Degected, hurt and angry, the young man made his way across the United States and eventually found himself in Waco Texas. There he got a job as a soda jerk and soon had the reputation of making the best fountain drinks in town. He would always tell the story of his long lost love back in Virginia to anyone who would listen. Soon he became known for two things; the ability to make very good fountain drinks, one in particular and the story of his lost love. Now, in his new store, there was a jukebox that played many popular songs of the day. As the music played the soda jerk would tell his story of his lost love. Overtime his story became legend and peaceful as the music soothed his story.
10 The people in town loved a particular drink of his and began to look for a name for the drink. They decided on naming it after the pharmacist who threw him out of town. The pharmacist s name was Dr. Pepper. Any kind of music can have a soothing affect on our emotions. Scientists from England determined that music can sooth the soul. They say the eight minute track, called Weightless, is so effective at inducing sleep it should not be listened to while driving. Carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms and bass lines help to slow the heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The trio Marconi Union worked with sound therapists to create the soothing tune, which also slows breathing and reduces brain activity. Scientists played the song to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Mozart and other composers.
11 The study found the song was even more relaxing than a massage, walk or cup of tea. The women were connected to sensors and given challenging puzzles to complete against the clock in order to induce a level of stress. They were then played different songs as their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and brain activity were recorded. Studies found Weightless was 11 per cent more relaxing than any other song and even made many of the women "drowsy" in the lab. It induced a 65 per cent reduction in overall anxiety and brought them to a level 35 per cent lower than their usual resting rates. The song features guitar, piano and electronic samples of natural soundscapes. It is pierced throughout by buddhist like chants that induce a trance like state.
12 Music is often overlooked as a therapeutic intervention: singing, listening, and creating music of any kind will provide an immediate biological and psychological benefit for everyone. In fact, music can be a salvation and antidote to most psychological challenges: that s why people sing in the shower and while driving the car, or simply listen to music that s inspiring and distracting from that which is causing an emotional upset. Let s take a look at the song Weightless and see if you begin to feel some relaxation while listening to it *****************PLAY VIDEO********************** Now, we did not play the entire song because it is just too long and I did not want to play this in the beginning because I figured it is hard enough to
13 keep you folks awake during the sermon I did not want to give you another excuse! Find your music. Determine what type of music is the one that will sooth your soul. When the soul is soothed and anger disappears, that is the moment that God will use to move inside of you and help you to live Christlike. When that happens, God will insure your eternity is with Him. Amen. Summary: When we are in this state of relaxation, we cannot remain angry at someone or something. And in this state of calm we are more open to the word of God and to living Christlike while we are here in our red zone. Amen.
14 Offertory Prayer: Loving and Gracious God. Help us find the music in our life that will soothe us and bring peace to our lives. Help us find the peace that you want for us so that we may be keenly aware of your love and your desire for us to live in you. Help us be the kind of Christian you want us to be so that we will spend our eternity with you. In Christ s name we pray. Amen.