Resonance

Our choir director, whom we affectionately called "Uncle Marshall", called for our attention as we assembled in the small choir room in the church basement, and announced the piece of music that we were going to rehearse.  After we were given a moment to find our parts on the song sheets, he waved a few beats with his hands, and the pianist started a short introduction before we started singing.  The first few measures of the song sounded remarkably balanced and in tune compared to the previous rehearsal, but the opening measures were the easy part.  We then went from a unison line to a four-part harmony, and everything still sounded good, until...BZZZZZZ!  We continued singing despite the strange buzzing noise, and it seemed that I was the only person who was bothered by it.  I tried to disregard the sound, but a couple of measures later, BZZZZZZ!  There it was again.   Then, BZZZZZZ!

The sound wasn't from a bee or a junebug, but sounded more like a metallic rattling, almost like the noise from a broken electric doorbell.  I scanned the room to locate the disturbance, and found that it came from the direction of the drum set in the corner.  The culprit turned out to be the snare drum.  It remained quiet most of the time, but whenever we sang a particular note (I think it was an A-flat), the sound wavelength would be just right to create resonance waves in the drum's metal snares and cause it to vibrate like a drum roll.  Annoyed, I took off my sweatshirt and threw it on the drum head, and we finished the song buzz-free.

In the phenomenon of resonance, large oscillating movements can be created by relatively soft actions.  A full choir belting out a fortissimo note in G or A-natural would not have caused that particular snare drum to have a slightest hint of vibration, but a single tenor singing a soft falsetto A-flat could get the drum rattling.  Resonance did not require a loud note, it only needed the right note.  On a larger scale, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which was the third longest suspension bridge in the United States when it was opened in 1940, undulated wildly when the wind blew "just right", and collapsed within four months.  Engineers clearly knew that wind would blow across the bridge, and certainly would have built the bridge to withstand the strongest winds possible...just not THAT kind.

In the same way, God often calls us to be instruments of resonance to the world around us during our earthly journey.  One may try to share the message of salvation to a friend for years without effect, while another person will speak but few words and lead this same person to Christ.  We often have no idea whom we will rattle.

When the Holy Spirit came on Jesus' disciples on the day of Pentecost, they spoke in different foreign tongues, and affected those who spoke diverse languages and gathered from all corners of the world:


Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.   Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?   Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?   Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”  Acts 2:5-11


Now that was a symphony of resonance!  May we remain faithful to God in our daily lives, and He will determine whom we'll be buzzing.