Sound of the Genuine in You

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 in Spirituality | 0 comments

At a recent conference offered by The Fund for Theological Education, we were asked to reflect on the works of Howard Thurman’s, “The Sound of the Genuine.”  Of all the materials and exercises that we did during that three day event, this particular reading impacted me the most. I pray you find it equally as thought provoking.

“There is in every person something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in herself (or himself)…there is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.  Nobody like you has ever been born and no one like you will ever be born again – you are the only one.

 

If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine within you, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching and if you hear it and then do not follow it, it was better that you had never been born.  You are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom is the only idiom of its kind in all the existences, and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

 

So the burden of what I have to say to you is, “What is your name – who are you – and can you find a way to hear the sound of the genuine in yourself?”  There are so many (voices and) noises going on inside of you, so many echoes of all sorts, so many internalizing of the rumble and the traffic going on in your minds, the confusions, the disorders by which your environment is peopled that I wonder if you can get still enough – not quiet enough – still enough to hear rumbling up from your unique and essential idiom the sound of the genuine in you.  I don’t know if you can. But this is your assignment.

 

The sound of the genuine is flowing through you.  Don’t be deceived and thrown off by all the noises that are a part even of your dreams (and) your ambitions that you don’t hear the sound of the genuine in you.  Because that is the only true guide you will ever have and if you don’t have that you don’t have a thing.  Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.”

I think the most important role of any minister is to help people cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in themselves.  I don’t believe any external voice holds the power to do what the spirit within can do.

I know my primary call is to be a “Dream Releaser” – to free people from the cages that are stifling their deepest dreams and desires.  I used to think my role was to unlock those cages but I have learned that the cages are locked from the inside and we all hold the key to our own cages.  “The key” is hearing the sound of the genuine within and finding the courage to follow it.  Our role as Christ followers is to help others find freedom by cultivating space where people can hear the sound of the genuine in themselves and remind them they were born to fly.

What from Thurman’s the “Sound of the Genuine” stood out for you?

How does this reflective piece make you feel about the “sound of the genuine” in you?

Why do you think it is important for the church to cultivate space for people to hear “the sound of the genuine?”

When you listen for the sound of the genuine in you, what do you hear?