We experience and see levels everyday in a variety of forms. Levels of expertise. Levels of success, brightness, loudness. Levels of a building, levels of a video game. Levels of government and authority. When I think of levels I often think of levels in terms of audio. I run the sound board at my church every Sunday and so when I hear the term levels I react with more vocal less piano, or more track in the monitor. Things along those lines. I admittedly am not very good at running sound or creating a balanced mix. I actually often have a very hard time just hearing people talk. My hearing would definitely have to be sub par most of the time. But none the less I operate the board and do my best to create a blend, a mix of levels that will hopefully sound good and pleasant to everyone else in the building. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. Sometimes I need help and the music director or the other sound guy will tell me hey more this, less that, and attempt to nurture that ideal mix, that preferred set of levels. When doing live audio it is almost always a constant dance. Constantly changing levels based on portions of the song, or how loud or quiet the singer has gone, or whatever the case may be. The interesting thing about it all is the correlation to every day life. Every day is just like a live mix. A live blend of feelings, thoughts, actions, and consequences. Everything means something and relates in one way or another. Just as moving the slider up on the instruments can result in no longer understanding the vocalist, or turning up the vocalist so much that he can no longer hear the music he is singing too, everything means something. Whether or not I smile at someone, or give a non-caring, condescending stare. It all matters. Life. This thing we do every single moment is a balancing act. And yet it’s not. Everything in moderation some say, but I would have beg to differ and only agree partially. Everything in moderation when it comes to food and exercise perhaps yes, but not to the extent of the word everything. Some things need to be done with reckless abandon, while other things avoided at any cost. Christ calls us to be like Him, to follow hard after Him. I am called to live for Him with utter and complete self denial, and reckless abandon to follow His lead and example. I am called to avoid sin and the appearance of evil at all cost. But just as I often create a poor mix of sound, so do I life as well. Too often I just set the levels and go. I don’t adjust and flex looking for that proper Christ like blend. Every situation, every second of my day should be Truth filled and inspired. Before every word, before every reaction, I should be filtered through Christ and His word. That blank stare, that look of boredom, that rude response, that belittling of another human being are all incorrect and wrong. All because I chose to live that portion of day, of my life, on a pre-set level of flesh and humanity. As a human being I wake up every morning by default set to this human pre-set. But because of redemption I am not locked into that pre-set. I have been granted the privilege of grace and title of God’s child. His blood has loosened the sliders and has given them the freedom to change. The freedom to do right. The freedom to adjust. The freedom to react with a smile and show love instead of my human pre-set of selfishness and pride. I don’t always live and use the freedom I have been granted. I often chose to ignore my freedom and choose to be a slave to sin and my humanity. Any time I do wrong it is because I made the choice to not do right. All these little choices end up composing life. The slightest bump in a slider can change the entire feel or sound of a song, and so the smallest actions can change the ending. I got a long ways to go to living this proper Christ like blend.

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live love.
breathe surrender.
with reckless abandon.