Rejoice with Those Who Rejoice

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Broadway (and high school pops concerts) heard this number more times than it can count. The basic premise of this song was that life should be lived in meaningful moments, not just by the ticks of the clock.

Lately I have been improving, but so much of life has been living from one high point to another. In some seasons, the landmarks aren't so much high points as low, but in either case the mundane, every-day was ignored. Having a boring life, as I do, tends to either encourage or discourage this phenomenon. I think it has been a blessing in my case.

What do we miss when we look forward to the weekend, dread an examination (or its results),and close big deals? We miss the blessings that are around us all the time. We miss the blessing of a quiet evening in. We miss the cold drink after a long work out. We miss talking to coworkers or colleagues to learn something new about their lives. We miss the carefully worded lyric that touches you in a special way. I don't mean to say we don't experience these things when we are "landmark living," but we certainly do tend to notice them less.

One very serious command came to the fore in my mind last week. Friends of mine were going through some serious highs and lows. One was resigning his job because there was insufficient work to keep him busy, even though his supervisor was quite satisfied with the quality and quantity of his work. Another ended a 5-year journey in his life by passing the Conneticut Bar exam. In each case I am not sure whether the subject of these events was living for the "landmarks" or not, but because I had been so long without landmarks in my own life (the last would have been in May when I was given affirmation of my call - five months ago!) that I was more able to identify them in the lives of others. There is a selflessness required for a person to notice and genuinely engage in the landmark moments in the lives of those around us.

In Romans 12 we are told how to display love in very specific ways:

9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.

Along with the direct command to "rejoice with those who rejoice; and mourn with those who mourn" is the exhortation to live in harmony with one another. As a musician, harmony means more to me than simply "getting along" with others. You see, each tone that is sounded sets off a series of higher tones, or overtones. These overtones are in intervals we musicians call fourths - each successive tone is a fourth above the one below it. When two tones are sounded at the same time, those tones are said to be in harmony if their respective overtones don't clash. Certainly some tones aren't meant to get along - tones that are adjacent to one another never harmonize and they sound like confusion when played together. And tones that otherwise would harmonize won't if either is even slightly out of tune.

So to live in harmony is a much more active thing than just getting along. We are responsible to know the tone of the one we are to get along with and be in tune with them - in the good and the bad.