At one point, I considered myself to be a fairly intelligent human being….this was before I took physics.

You see, physics has a language unto its own, with words you’ll not hear anywhere else. Words like:

Absorptance
Adiabatic
Angstrom
Baryon
Capacitance
Cyclotron
Diffraction
Dioptre
Faraday

…and we’re only up to the letter F.

To understand, communicate, and function in the world of physics, you have to speak the language of physics.

Take for instance the Sine Wave.

The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical curve that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It is named after the function sine, of which it is the graph. It occurs often in pure and applied mathematics, as well as physics, engineering, signal processing and many other fields.*

Simple right?

Perhaps this illustration will help.

 

Scientists will tell you there are three main types of waves, longitudinal waves, transverse waves and surface waves. Think of these different types of waves as sound waves moving through the air, a Slinky or ripples on a pond.

Whatever the type of wave, they all move energy. They all have a pattern. They all have a rhythm.

If you are a mathmetician, you should probably stop reading now. We’re about to very UNtechnical.

Someone asked me recently if God still speaks to us today. I replied, “yes, of course. The problem is to understand what He’s saying.”

God speaks in Sine Language.

Think of your own life. There’s a rhythm isn’t there?

Ups and downs.
Highs and lows.
Good and bad.

It’s the same in nature.
Day and night.
Seasons.
Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall.
Death and rebirth.
Patterns.

Rhythms.

Gustave Flaubert noticed this and recorded it in his novella, November.

“I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.”

There is a rhythm in nature. There is a rhythm in our lives.

Some people have developed a name for this rhythm.

God.

How do we learn to speak Sine Language?

St. Ignatius Loyola spoke about a “Third Method of Praying,” done “according to rhythmic measures.” You concentrate on a single word while breathing in and out. That one word is said between one breath and another. In other words, we enter into the rhythm through prayer.

Another spiritual exercise credited to St. Ignatius is The Prayer of Examen. Primarily an exercise in remembering, one is invited to concentrate on experiences and encounters from the past day.

Or maybe it’s as simple as journaling. Recording your daily thoughts and activities. Over time you may see the patterns and rhythms that develop.

Now, the problem with this God rhythm is that often it’s hard to hear, much less understand. And sometimes it feels like there is no rhythm at all. It’s as if we are constantly in the trough.

Maybe you are in the trough right now? Maybe the waves are crashing down on you? Maybe the idea of speaking to God is the last thing on your mind? Are you are battling disease? Has a relationship failed to work out the way you hoped? Are you are struggling beyond what you can bear? Maybe the idea of speaking to God isn’t even on your radar and just making it through the day seems like an accomplishment. If that’s the case then all I can say is, “I’m sorry.”

I don’t know why this is happening. You don’t deserve it. It isn’t fair.

If you feel like life is crashing down upon you, it’s important to remember one thing. Consider it a mantra. A motto to live by.

This is a wave.

Waves are rough. They are powerful. They can be very destructive. But waves, like seasons, like nighttime, like all things….

…waves will pass.

They will.

Take a deep breath.

This is a wave.

It will pass.

Deep breath.

This is a wave.

It will pass.

Deep breath.

This is a wave.

It will pass.

My prayer is that you learn to see the patterns in your life. As you learn to speak Sine Language, may you feel the God rhythm all around you. As you enter into that rhythm, may you experience the peace of knowing there is something out there, bigger than yourself, speaking to you every day. And as the waves that crash around you subside, may something beautiful appear.

 

*Source: Wikipedia