However, more than just a symbolic message woven into the film's background, the idea that music/God might be the silence within the world's chatter and the peace within its chaos is one that Ayers truly seems to believe. In flashbacks, he is repeatedly told that music will be his escape and that key that will open up the entire world to him. In Ayers' near worship of Beethoven, it is as if the once-king of music is Ayers' human equivalent to God. When Lopez worries that Ayers' instrument will be stolen from him, Ayers proves the value it has to him by stating that he will fight to the death to protect it. But at the same time that Ayers' concept of something greater seems almost completely tied to music, when life on the street shows its darker side, Ayers stands amidst the chaos and says the Lord's Prayer.

Perhaps Ayers' most interesting reference to God, however, is when he tells Lopez that he is his god. Promptly following the nomination, Lopez directs Ayers, as his god, to do what he thinks is best. For a time, Lopez attempts to help Ayers but taking a position of control. But as Lopez soon discovers, helping Ayers isn't as simple as calling out orders and administering medicine. As the director of an assistance program tells Lopez, "I don't get hung up on diagnoses." As Lopez's ex-wife tells him—just show up, be his friend.

From Ayers' belief that Lopez is his god to the way Ayers steps up to blunderingly fill that role, the situation raises the question of what our concept of God is, what He is really like, and what it might actually look like to be in a relationship with Him. In Ayers' concept of God, we see our desire to see Him as a protector and a peacemaker. When Lopez picks up the title, we see our view of a god as someone who knows best and takes charge. But as the relationship unfolds, we see that while a god may very well be a source of both supreme knowledge and protection, for any of that to ever mean anything, the god we need must first be a friend who loves us. And as Lopez reveals, part of being a friend is knowing, seeing, and sometimes taking our friend's worst and still remaining.

Although most of us have probably never personally dealt with mental illness on the same scale as Ayers, the truth is that we all live in a world filled with many contradictory and discouraging voices. There will be voices that will tell us we aren't loved. There will be voices that tell us we do not belong. There will be voices that tell us that this world has nothing to offer us but fear and hopelessness. But no matter how loud those voices may become, there will always be at least one other voice offering us an alternative truth. As we hear among Ayers' voices, that voice will tell us, "I will protect you." As we see in Lopez's actions, it will tell us, "I am here for you." And as Jesus says in John 16:33 and is standing by waiting to prove to us every day, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

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