When Truth Moves Like Birds 04.11.2025
Entrainment, Coherence, and the Gentle Power of Divine Design
There’s a memory I keep returning to — standing by the ocean during our annual family trip to the Outer Banks, watching the wind stir the dunes and listening for something deeper. In that stillness, meditating on the mantra of “flow over force”, I was given a vision: two bubbles, floating toward each other. They didn’t collide or pop; they met softly, folding into one another without force. It was a whisper from the Spirit — this is how truth should move.
Truth, I’m learning, doesn’t need to be confronting to be witnessed. It doesn’t need to shout to be heard. It can entrain — like birds flying in perfect synchrony, like hearts syncing between mother and child, like the tide returning to the shore again and again. It is not demanding. It is not loud.
Our pastor once said, “Jesus doesn’t have to yell like the enemy does. He can whisper… because He’s always close.” And scripture supports this notion of the soft and gentle voice of the Lord:
“May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.” // Deuteronomy 32:2
This message stayed with me. Because so much of what we see today — in conversations, in culture, even in spiritual circles — feels like shouting. Like urgency. Like force. A cacophony of alerts pinging for our attention. But the One who holds the truth doesn’t need to scream. He simply is. And when we are in tune with Him, we begin to move differently, speak differently, resonate differently.
This resonance — this natural, sacred synchronization — has a name. In the language of physics and biology, it’s called entrainment. But in the language of the Spirit, I believe it’s what happens when truth is walked, not wielded.
What Is Entrainment? (Nature + Physics)
In the natural world, entrainment is everywhere once you know how to see it.
It’s the way a group of fireflies begins to flash in unison. The way birds fly in flock formation without crashing into each other. It’s the rhythmic sway of sea kelp moving together beneath the surface, the way our breath slows when we rock a sleeping baby, and how women living together often find their cycles syncing over time.
Scientifically, entrainment is the synchronization of two or more rhythmic systems — an aligning of patterns. One system begins to harmonize with another, especially if one is more stable or coherent. And here’s the important part: this doesn’t happen through force. It happens through proximity and resonance. Through being close to something steady, something sure, something coherent.
Even the human heart is susceptible to entrainment. Studies show that when two people sit in deep connection — say, a mother and her child, or a couple in prayer — their heartbeats begin to align. Their brainwaves, too. This is the silent intelligence of God’s divine design: living systems naturally seek harmony.
When I heard the word entrainment months ago, during a podcast interview with Kat’s birthkeeper, I felt a stirring. I didn’t yet know how fully it would come to shape how I understand truth-telling, nervous system regulation, or motherhood. But now I see — entrainment isn’t just science. It’s sacred design.
Coherence as a Spiritual Language
Coherence is what makes entrainment possible. It's the quality of being ordered, steady, and aligned — heart, mind, and spirit moving as one. In human terms, a coherent person is someone who feels grounded, centered, in tune with what they believe and how they live.
Think of a tuning fork: when it's struck, it emits a pure, resonant tone. And when another fork is placed near it, without even touching, it begins to hum at the same frequency. That is entrainment — and that first fork? That’s coherence.
Jesus was the perfect tuning fork. His coherence was magnetic. He didn’t need to argue or perform. People followed Him because He was the Way — calm in the storm, still amid chaos, loving even when others couldn’t see. He didn't enter rooms with urgency. He entered with authority, born from alignment, from coherence.
When we live in coherence with God’s truth — when our internal state matches the peace we preach — others can feel it. Not because we’ve convinced them, but because we’ve become resonant. Safe. Steady. Entrainable. When your truth gently brushes up against someone else's, it doesn't demand assimilation—it offers invitation.
A Whisper, Not a Shout (Closing Meditation)
Entrainment reminds us that transformation doesn’t always come with a bang. Sometimes, it comes with a breath. A pause. A person willing to simply be what they believe.
As mothers, truth-sharers, and seekers — what if we let go of the need to be convincing? (That’s ego’s demand, anyhow). What if we trusted that our peace, our coherence, our way of moving through the world, was enough to create ripples?
Truth doesn’t have to dominate. It can invite. It doesn’t have to overpower. It can entrain.
So here is your invitation, beloved reader — not to do more, but to become more attuned to what already is. Take this into your day, your prayer, your next moment of stillness:
Where am I yelling, when I could be whispering?
Where am I striving, when I’m being called to abide?
Where is God inviting me to soften — not through silence, but through steady resonance?
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. // John 15: 4-5
Let the birds teach you. Let the tide teach you. Let your child’s heartbeat against yours remind you: You don’t have to force the rhythm. You just have to hold it; abide.
