Acoustic Love

An underwater experiment, the tale of two houses, and a biblical look at when to speak up and when silence is a solace.

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

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Transcript

            Sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing are the five senses that allow us to interact and respond to the world around us.  On land, our most dominant sense is vision.  Eyesight is the, forgive the pun, guiding light for most of us terrestrial dwellers.  There are several practical reasons for this.  One reason is that the feedback of vision is the fastest.  Light travels faster than sound and therefore we can see things happen before we hear them.  Lightning can be seen before thunder is heard.  Another reason is distance.  You can see your friend walking towards you several blocks away but you only hear them over the noisy sounds of the city as they get much closer.  Travel to Nebraska and there are corn fields as far as the eye can see… which is much further than the hand can touch or the tongue can taste.  In the battle for dominance amongst the senses, as the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

            But below the ocean’s surface, the eye is no longer king of the senses.  Sound travels much more efficiently than light does.  If you have ever snorkeled or gone scuba diving, you have experienced visibility underwater and 100 feet of visibility is the best you will get in most tropical waters, but with even a minor amount of algae or sediment – 30 feet visibility is more common.  Through the air, sound travels at 1,125 feet per second.  Underwater, sound travels at 4,921 feet per second. Almost four times faster.  Since water is a denser medium for sound to travel through, it also reduces distortion allowing sound, especially low frequency sound to travel thousands of miles.  These properties are why marine animals like whales rely on sound for communication over long distances, and why sonar technology is effective for underwater navigation and exploration.

            Which is why, when the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was looking for ways to improve coral reefs, they decided to turn the volume up and see what happens.

I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.

A healthy coral reef is a noisy place.  It is teeming with the sounds of life.  From the vocalizations of clownfish and the mating calls of damselfish to the sound of other tropical species grinding their teeth or rubbing their fins together.  Shrimp and crabs snapping their claws together and even sea urchins make faint clicks and scraping sounds as they move and feed.  The chorus of the coral reef is the sound of life… and as a section of coral reef dies off or when it is damaged those sounds disappear.  Silence replaces the sound of vitality and health.

In a paper published on March 13th of 2024, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute demonstrated that degraded coral reefs could be revitalized using sound.  Dubbed, ‘acoustic enrichment’, the researchers placed speakers all over these dying coral reefs and then used the speakers to artificially recreate the soundscape of a healthy coral reef.

Corals are immobile as adults, but in the larval stage, they swim and drift in search of the best conditions to affix themselves to the seabed.  When the speakers were used for acoustic enrichment, the research team found that coral larval began to resettle the dying section of reef.  In some places, at a rate up to 7x higher than was seen in sections without the usage of sound.  The sound of life led to the revitalization of life.

The acoustic enrichment of coral reefs reminds me of an example of sound bringing life found in the book of Acts.  In Acts chapter 16, the apostle Paul and his traveling companion Silas are in the city of Philippi.  The chief magistrates, essentially the judges of the city, had ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten and thrown into the inner prison where they were not just jailed, but had their feet fastened into the stocks.  Paul and Silas would have been in a pitch black environment, bruised and potentially bloodied, too.  Everything would have hurt, and there would be no way for them to get comfortable with their feet locked into the stocks.  In the deepest part of the prison, surrounded by some of the worst that the city of Philippi had to offer, what do Paul and Silas do?

In Acts 16, verse 25 it says… “But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

That folks, is acoustic enrichment.  Inner prison, feet in stocks, bodies battered, and the hour is midnight – what do they do?  They sing through the darkness… and the other prisoners listen.  Acoustic enrichment.

Later on in the same account, a miraculous earthquake will shake the prison and open every door… but the prisoners won’t attempt to escape – why?  Acoustic enrichment – the prisoners listened to Paul and Silas again.  The prisoners listened and stayed because in a place without light or joy – Paul and Silas praised God and sang with joy.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he writes to them and says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

And again in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus he writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

If you’ve ever been to a congregation where they take the singing seriously – you know how powerful the sound of worship can be.  I’m not talking about a church that gets all the technique right and everyone is a professional singer – I’m talking about a church where you look around and every soul from the smallest child the old man with a walker is singing with a melody that comes from the heart.  The energy is acoustic enrichment.  Words of life (psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs) sung with voices steeped in gratitude are compelling things.  Show me a congregation that sings together like that and I will show you a congregation that is alive.

The opposite is also true:

1 Corinthians 13 reminds us: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Sound without love isn’t a good thing.  A church that goes through the motions of worship without the heart for it will not last long.  What is supposed to sound like life instead sounds the death knell of a group that has left their first love.  A dying church has forgotten to sing with melody and thankfulness in their hearts.  They’ve replaced sound with noise… and they definitely aren’t the same thing.

I’m enamored with the difference between sound and noise.  Technically all noise is sound, but the term ‘noise’ is a way of describing sound that is unwanted or unappreciated.  From the background noises of your neighbors lawnmower too early on a Saturday morning to the halfalogue conversation you have to put up with when someone speaks loudly into their cell phone in a public space.  Are lives are often bombarded by noise that is slightly distracting at best and absolutely infuriating at worst.  Not all sound is acoustic enrichment.  Sometimes the best sound is silence.

Proverbs is full of reminders about making sure you aren’t a noisemaker.

For example:

Proverbs 10:19 says, "When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent."

Or 

Proverbs 13:3 "Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin."

and Ecclesiastes provides the reminder that fools do all the talking when it says,

For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words. (Ecclesiastes 5:3)

And perhaps must terrifying of all the reminders about needless noise is Jesus’ warning in Matthew 12:36” I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak”

Your voice can be a powerful tool for encouragement, but it can also be the worst sort of noisemaker.  So, how can we decide when to provide acoustic enrichment and when to offer the sound of silence?

By way of example, I would like to present you with what I will refer to as The Tale of Two Houses.

My house is loud.  It is full of children at all hours.  I’ve come to accept the sounds of the chaos.  My home is the sort of loud that confuses people when they talk to me on the phone and hear these sounds in the background – is something wrong? What was that clatter? Is everyone okay? At the moment as I am writing this podcast from my home office, I can hear two kids joking with each other and mildly arguing over what game they will play next.  A toddler is currently entertaining himself in the next room by stomping as loudly as his tiny feet can.  Several small people are talking over top of one another in what I would consider to be a vibrant but inefficient conversation.  Cupboards are being opened and closed as groceries are being put away.  My wife is providing instructions to somebody about where the vegetables go two rooms away and I have a sneaking suspicion someone is attempting to slide down the stair railing.  None of these sounds are unpleasant, but they are a constant din.  They are the chorus of the coral reef that is my family.

But remember, this is the tale of two houses.  Next door to my house is my parent’s home. They are empty nesters.  Their home is quiet.  Orderly. Sane.  Books are quietly read.  Coffee is gently brewed.  She paints watercolors almost every day and during the winter month’s he builds Lego sets or does wood carving by hand. Their home is quiet.

Sometimes, when the din of life in my home is too much for me, I sneak next door to sit quietly with them and discuss world politics, family affairs, and the weather all while holding a cup of coffee.  They are very patient with me.

But the opposite is also true.  There are times I realize my parents have made a good excuse to come visit the happy chaos that is my home where they can listen to the cacophony of their grandchildren that is anything but quiet.  A visit from their grandkids to their home brings noise, mess, and general disorder… but they sit there through the maelstrom with the same look I have when I am embracing the serenity of their home.

As I said – it’s the tale of two houses.

Sometimes we need the sounds of laughter and life and sometimes we need the solace of silence.

Psalm 68:6 says that, “God sets the solitary in families”

I would argue that sound is associated with family, community, vibrancy.  When we feel alone, we need the sound of companionship.  This is why we are so encouraged when we assemble as a church and sing with shared voices.  Sound isn’t alone – sound is together.  The lonely, the outcast, the widow, the single person, the elderly or homebound – sound is their friend.  Sound feels like family.  Sound feels like love.

Sound also is befitting times of rejoicing and success.  In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a man that found his lost sheep and a woman that found a lost coin of great value – in both parables, when they found what was lost, they gathered their friends and neighbors to rejoice with them.

The sound of love should be found in moments of success and moments of answered prayers.  Love celebrates other people’s milestones.  From weddings to graduations to birthdays to news that the cancer is now in remission… love raises the volume and rejoices with those who rejoice.

So, what about silence?  Love seems to show silence when there is nothing worth saying and when the problem can’t be fixed only endured.

When the prophet Isaiah described Jesus’ behavior during His trials and crucifixion, he wrote, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

And Peter says of Jesus’ silence before His enemies, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly."

…and Peter knew exactly how Jesus stayed silent during His trials because Peter was there… and sadly, Peter should have spoken up. As Jesus was silently enduring mistreatment from His enemies – Peter remained silent, too, and denied even knowing Jesus.

Jesus remained silent because there wasn’t anything to say.  Words weren’t going to change anything – the trials were all a sham – Jesus’ actions spoke louder than anything He would have said.

Sometimes silence is because you understand words will just cause trouble.  Wisdom knows when to keep your mouth shut.

Silence also is immensely useful when comforting people who have problems you can’t fix.  In the book of Job, it speaks of Job’s three friends who visited him when he lost everything, his possessions, his children, and his health.

Job chapter two says, “Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”

Sometimes we think we need to speak, but the best thing we can do is admit there isn’t anything worth saying.  We can’t alleviate the trial someone is going through, but we can silently let them know they don’t have to go through it alone.

Silence is the voice of comfort and shared suffering… and sound? It sings community and joy and life!

Sometimes we need to bring in the speakers to deliver sound to a dying reef and sometimes we need to remember to cut out the noise and distraction.

Either way, learn to love better – learn to control the volume.

As always, thank you for listening and hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better.  If you have a chance to rate, review or share the podcast it would be a blessing.  By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you help us reach more people.

I mentioned at the end of last season, that I was revamping my website.  An update that was LONG overdue.  A special thanks to Brady Cook and Diakonos Marketing for bringing BibleGrad.com into the modern era!  If you are interested, you can sign up for a video series challenge through the website called the #HopeDoes challenge.  Two short videos each week and a chance to grow in your hope by doing hopeful things.  Just go to BibleGrad.com, scroll down and enter your email to get started.

Or maybe you have a fun or obscure history account, a feel-good news story, or a riveting scientific fact you think could help us love better.  If so, I’d love to hear it!  Feel free to email me at scott@biblegrad.com 

And if you are ever in the Louisville, KY area, I’d like to invite you to come worship with me and my family at the Eastland congregation.  We meet for worship every Sunday and have Bible classes for all ages on Wednesdays, too.  If you want more information about Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org.  We would love to worship God with you and help you on your walk of faith.

And as always, until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”