Aug | 09 | Dealing With Those Sounds in The Night

Dream Word – COURAGE

Exodus 10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses,"Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt ." NKJV

Deasling With Those Sounds In The Night

Whilst serving at HMS Dolphin in Gosport on the South coast of England, I once remember walking around the weapons lab on base and seeing the insides of a Mark 24 Tiger Fish Torpedo. Wire guided, its electronic wires and innards were at that time hanging helplessly over its surgically opened cylindrical sides like bust intestines! It looked lost, hopelessly long, simply an open pipe waiting to be laid in the earth to carry away our refuse. The torpedo looked dead and useless, but of course, it was simply unconscious for now, out of its element, sleeping.

The truth is that torpedoes are terrible monsters once they are let loose on their prey in their wet, dark and familiar element. During the Falklands War for example, a British Hunter Killer Nuclear Submarine, HMSM Conqueror, let loose three old Mark 8 torpedoes at the Argentinean Cruiser, the General Belgrano and in that attack alone, sank the cruiser, killing over 320 sailors.
Bill Budding, the man who fired the torpedoes that sank the General Belgrano on May 2 1982, said that “The next day I made myself listen to the tapes of the attack. The sound was like shattering glass. It was horrible.” Again, Steve McIntosh a young sailor on Conqueror at the time and helping with tracking operations remarked that, “the sound of the explosion could be heard clearly in the submarine. It was like a thud and a hollow clap and a weird tinkling, which was the metal of the ship breaking up.”

Sounds in the night are terrible things to listen too. All those blown apart, screaming, burning, drowning, oil and blood-spattered bodies sinking to the cold South Atlantic depths. Yes, your imagination can run wild in the deep dark of your night.

You know, I have seen some of the smallest creatures make the most terrifying of noises. I have seen cats cry like hurting babies. If I hadn’t had seen them, then the unknown source of those weird sounds would have frightened me, but seeing the source of those sounds, have you got that, seeing the source of sounds, allows you to be fully observational and somewhat calmer in such seeing knowledge, able to be in control and if necessary, to make yourself safe from any oncoming fury or attack that might follow hard on the heels of such a seen and understood sound. Ah, but if you cannot see the source of the sound, then the monster in your mind gets larger. Unseen sounds in the deep dark night, are terrible things to listen to, for your imagination can run wild.

Many years ago I was trained to be very familiar with the shape of sounds that hid in distant seas. A submarine sonar operator during the Cold War serving on the old Polaris fleet, meant that I spent months of my life listening, identifying and classifying sounds, which gathered information, in turn assisted others to place some kind of visible structure on the incoming acoustic waves. Serving on the most silent boats of the most secret of services, meant that just about all my sonar experience was passive. In other words, there was no sound transmission and subsequent collected reflection for examination, just listening, just the ever constant listening to the dark sounds of the always deep, dark and distant night.

Tonight I want tell you the three most disturbing sounds I ever heard.

The first was the splash-pop-fizz sound of a Sting Ray torpedo being dropped by an aircraft or helicopter into the water.

The second most fearful sound was of that same torpedo turning its own active sonar into search mode.

The third and most terrifying sound, was that of the now hunting torpedo acquiring its target, as heard in the subsequent increased frequency pulse of its own active sonar. At that point my friend, despite the drama portrayed in ‘The Hunt for Red October,’ in all honesty, it was probably time to put your head between your legs and kiss your bits goodbye! Sounds in the night are terrible things to listen to, for your imagination can run wild.

I need to ask you this evening if you are as familiar with your internal surroundings as much as you are with the contents of your external surroundings? Are you familiar with the source of the creaking sounds of your own rigging as it sails through the night? The squeak of that spiritual wheel, the cries of the hurt prisoners still locked in your brig after all these years? Are you familiar with the crying and creaking sounds of your own soul and the flickering of your own spirits images, projected on the screen of your terrifying dreams, baying for attention and begging for an explanation?It is time to surface and to draw close to all your sinking ships dear friends. It is time to identify all the disturbing sounds that have haunted the dark nights of your soul, so that in the end you might possess a knowing, healing and all-redemptive peace. Look!

Listen:- By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Isa 9:1-2 NKJV

Pray:- When You arrive O Lord, angels sing “Glory!” When you arrive O Lord, golden gifts of anointing and sweet-smelling savour are brought by kings from the land of day break. When you arrive O Lord, darkness flees away, healings happen, peace is restored, life and renewal, hope and resurrection of all our wrecks, shall follow hard on the souls of Your mighty stepping feet. O Lord, I give you this my dwelling place tonight, this my holy bed, this inner sanctum of my head and of my heart, and ask that Your light be ever present here. O Lord, teach me in the morning how to sweep and clean, how to wash and cleanse, how to open and how to close. In Your great name I ask that you blow my main ballast and help me to safely surface to Your great morning light, Amen!