God, the Audio Guy

We have an audio lab on campus that works a little like a radio station, only without actually being on the air. It’s a ‘Zen’ room: the lights are low and the walls are carpeted in a soft earthy brown for the purpose of absorbing noise and muting the outside. The computer hums along with the music, and the audio board gleams… lights flickering like multicolored stars and fader bars sliding up and down, city elevators leading to the celestial. It is a place of peace.

Until it stops working. Which has been happening a lot lately.

Its last rebellion left myself, another lab tech, and one of the professors in the 5’x6’ (give or take) space, pulling wires in futility. After several frustrating hours it either gave up or got bored and decided to momentarily cooperate. It’s a bit like striking a bargain with a convict—you expect things to go wrong in the deal. The only real question is when.

Soaking in our triumph—or too exhausted to move—we sat in the lab and talked about electronics, the machinations and complications of them. The talk turned to radio stations, then concerts. I’d been mostly quiet to this point. My audio expertise is limited at best. But concerts! I know concerts.

The professor mentioned something about working audio for a band, touring with them for a few months. “Man,” I said, “That would be such a cool job.”

She looked at me as though I’d suggested choking puppies for stress relief.

“You don’t want that job,” she replied, shaking her head. “If anything—anything—goes wrong, you’re the one they blame.”

I started thinking about that. How many shows had I been to where I had blamed the audio guy? “The sound was off,” is a favorite criticism of concert junkies. “It was the audio.” Never mind the fact that the band is quite possibly hung over, sick, not playing well or have badly tuned their guitars. Nope, it’s always the audio guy. The ‘Concert Scapegoat.’

What if it’s a great show? If everything goes well? No one notices the audio guy. The great shows, the good shows, even the decent shows that just borderline don’t suck are attributed to the band. The band must be really good, the band is awesome. The audio guy? He just did his job—yay for him. He just becomes an elevated roadie with a penlight in the back, playing with buttons. But you never notice him. Not until things go badly.

And, the more I started thinking about it, the more I realized: God is our audio guy.

When things are bad, when days suck, who is the first name to blame? God. If terrorists blow up buildings, God allowed that to happen. If soldiers die somewhere, God is punishing us. The world is in a horrible condition because God is cruel. God doesn’t care. God is just letting us spin around in our misery—no, better yet, God is causing our misery. No wonder there are so many people who don’t like God.

Or there’s the other side of suffering. When the chips are down, we fall down, and pray. Take a guess how many people starting coming to church after 9/11. When we are in pain, when we cannot solve a problem, then we turn to God. We fall on our knees, beg, plead, ask for His benevolence, to grace us with mercy. Anyone can find a Bible in a crisis.

And it’s not to say we shouldn’t ask God for help in times of trouble. He loves us, and hears our prayers. But how many of us can’t seem to carve time out for Him when things are going good?

When things are good, it’s all us. We did it. We made the grade, passed that test. We got that job. We got that date, and didn’t act like a total fool. We wrote something amazing, we played the best game ever played. It was us. Our honor.

Not God.

So often we completely ignore God until we need some omnipotent help. He is out of the picture until there is some sort of crisis. When there is, we can pray and repent with such fervor. But when things are okay, God fades into the background. Just a little point of light while we’re onstage, sucking up the glory.

Why is it we can only find our knees in an emergency?

We need to remember that God is there on the good days, too. He never promised us good days all of the time, but He guides us through those as much as the bad. And all those talents, all that stuff we’re so proud of ourselves for doing? That should be reflected back to God. As awesome as that touchdown was, I don’t think it compares to making all existence in six days. We need to remember He is loving us all of the time, on good days, bad days, melancholy days, whatever. He is constantly knowing us. Why is it we should only give Him a nod when things are bad?

So, the next good day you have, or the next great concert you attend, whichever comes first, give a thanks to the audio guy. He’s there just as much as the bad days or the bad shows.