Category Archives: Music

Day 15 – Live ’til you die

Posted on by
Reply

Watch this:
Elderly couple throws down on the piano at Mayo

I saw this today and loved it. This couple was visiting the Mayo clinic and stopped to play for a moment on the piano in the main lobby. They’ve been married 62 years; the husband is 90 years old! I’m assuming one of them is fighting an illness since they’re there, but they’re radiating life and fun. I also love the way they work together, taking turns with each part, bouncing along all the way to the end. That’s a good model for marriage, too, don’t you think?

You’re only as old as you feel or decide to be. You don’t have to die in your heart before your body gives out. Really live until you die!

Day 4 – iListen

Posted on by
1

Kelly Clark, US snowboarder who won the bronze medal the other night in the half pipe, stood at the top waiting for her name to be called.  In the dark of Whistler mountain night time, the half pipe venue shone bright white.  It was Kelly’s turn for her second run, her last chance to do well enough to earn a medal in the 2010 Olympics.  I’d be so nervous.  There must be lots of pressure on the athletes as they listen to the crowd cheering, the announcer talking about them, see the bright lights and sea of faces and eyes watching their every move.  They’ve been training for years for this one moment in time.  Kelly didn’t really seem to be paying attention to any of that because she had her ipod turned on, her ear buds in her ears and she was singing.  It cracked me up!  She didn’t seem to care at all that the cameras were filming her.  She never looked up at them.  I don’t know what the song was but she looked straight ahead at the half pipe, singing loudly along as she waited for the go ahead.  It was especially funny to me because no one else could hear the music, all we could hear was her lone voice.  I did hear a few of the words she sang, “You.. shall.. love.. me”, as she took off down the hill and completed a fantastic run, seemingly confident and at ease.

If only I could be as focused on God’s voice in my ears and heart and not get distracted by the noise around me, or even worse, the voice of the enemy.  If only I could be as confident in myself because I had trained, I had worked hard, I had prepared, and I was ready for the task at hand….whatever it may be.  I love that Kelly sings before she performs. I love that she didn’t care to hear her name being blasted over the loud speakers or the crowds cheering for her.  The music helped her focus and get pumped up and that was good enough for her.  It didn’t matter that no one else could hear it.

Jesus said He’s the Good Shepherd and that his sheep know His voice.  I know His voice, but want to hear it so clearly it’s as if I have ear buds in my woolly sheep ears and nothing else fills my mind but the melodic, pure sound of His words and songs.  I don’t think there would be any flips or high flying twists, but I would follow Him closely with laser focus and sing.  If I do, I know I’ll finish well….just like Kelly.

Addendum:  Someone let me know the song that Kelly was listening to!  It’s beautiful – you can hear it below:

For all of us losers

Posted on by
Reply

Loser.  What comes to mind when you hear that label?  Nerd.  Dork.  Failure.  Outcast.  Someone to make fun of.   It’s not a title anyone relishes or wants.

Have you ever been the loser at any one point in your life?   Or have you been on the other end, the one giving the loser a hard time?

Jesus met lots of losers when he walked the roads of Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth…Samaria.  One time He and his disciples were going through Samaria while heading somewhere else and stopped for a break.  Jesus told the disciples to go on into town to get food while he waited just outside of town by a well.  It was midday and hot.  As he looked out across the stony ground he saw the waves of heat shimmering low and felt the sun baking his already browned arms and hands.  He heard the shuffling of feet drawing nearer and turned to see a woman, all alone, coming to the well for water.  She came in the heat of the day all by herself because she was a loser.  Continue reading →

Has it really been all about You, God?

Posted on by
1

As I sat on the piano bench a few Sundays before our last Sunday at our church as pastors, I felt that nearness to God that often comes to me when I’m singing, making music, and leading worship with my friends.  There’s nothing like music to lift me into God’s presence, to remind me of how beautiful, holy and amazing He is, to open and soften my heart.  There is definitely nothing like music that enables me to express praise to God, to celebrate Him, to love Him.  It’s just the way my heart and soul are wired, I think.  Music is huge to me – always has been.  I wonder what the spiritual connection really is when we sing for and to God?  I believe God made singing/playing music spiritual and not just pleasing to the ears.

As I sat on the piano bench that Sunday a sadness crept up and over me as I realized this time of leading and singing with these particular friends and in this way was about over.  Even as we sang, my heart was praying, “God, I don’t want to give this up.  Continue reading →

How He Loves Us

Posted on by
Reply

I heard a song this past week that touched my heart and opened my eyes anew to the magnitude of God’s love for us, his creatures, his people, his children.

The song I’m talking about is “How He Loves” by John Mark McMillan.  It’s lyrics are so powerful and beautiful, the chorus passionately sung at the top of his lungs, “Oh how He loves us, oh how he loves…”

My youngest just got home from a week at camp.  During one of the worship times about 30 of the kids participated in “cardboard testimonies” – a time when individuals write on one side of a piece of cardboard what they used to be or a problem they were facing, then on the other side they write how God has changed them or freed them.  For instance on one side someone’s said “tried to kill myself” and on the other side “God’s love saved me”.    Well, Krissy was chosen to be a part of this experience and said they played “How He Loves” while the kids took turns going up front and showing their cardboard testimonies.  She said it was so powerful – that she could feel God’s presence in the room, like it was exploding in her heart.  Many were in tears as the kids experienced God’s love in a new way, through the testimonies of other kids.

I love the lyrics of the song, especially “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way…He loves us, Oh how He loves us!”

I heard another song this week with the lyrics “I pray for love like Yours for me.”  What an awesome prayer!  If we had love for others like God has for us – WOW.  What change would take place in people’s lives!  What blessings would overflow!

I’m going to intentionally focus on God’s love today and ask him the same, to give me love like His for me, to help me remember His love – so much so that it blots out distractions, worries, temptations, and self.

He loves us!  OH how He loves us!   Oh How he loves!

You have reason to sing

Posted on by
Reply

There have been times when choosing to praise God in spite of something traumatic happening in my life brought healing.  It may not have come at the very instant I made the choice to speak or sing something to God, but it came.  For some reason, when you force yourself to shift your thinking away from pain, disappointment, discouragement, fear, or worry – if only for a moment – to proclaim the things you know to be true, it’s as if God cuts a slit in the dark shroud that’s suffocating you and allows a shaft of brilliant hope to shine in.  Courage grows, freedom shows it’s beautiful face again.  When we say or think, “God is still the God He was before” or “God is still on the throne” or “He never changes, He is still faithful, He still cares about me” or any number of truths like these we’re taking a step toward Him, putting ourselves out there, with arms reaching forward in faith.  We’re waiting for Him to make the next move and pull us closer, to refine us, to beautify us, to do a miracle and somehow bring something good out of something completely awful.  Sometimes we have no idea how any good can come out of what we’re facing, but we trust.  We praise.

I guess that’s the ticket – when we praise in spite of circumstances we are proclaiming our faith.  We are saying “I still believe, God.  I don’t feel You, I don’t see You.  I don’t hear You right now.  But I’m choosing to believe that You’re still good and You’re still there.  You’re still God.”  The Bible tells us many times that faith pleases God.  In fact, it tells us that without faith you cannot please Him.  Many of his people in the Old Testament, before Jesus came to save them from sin, were justified simply because they had faith.

Choosing to praise in pain or any trial also gets our eyes off of ourselves and back onto Jesus and the purpose He has for us.  We can begin moving forward rather than being stuck knee-deep in sinking sand or muck.

I watched a video today of a worship leader from the Hillsong Church in Australia who endured a terrible disappointment and loss, yet chose to praise God.  Watch it and let God speak to your heart.  Listen to the lyrics of the song, too.  This has become my new favorite.

Dance!

Posted on by
Reply

Watch this video:

The first time I watched this I giggled and smiled the entire time, almost moved to tears.   Such joy and fun!  I love how as they danced, more and more people joined in until it was soon a huge crowd of joyful, jumping, dancing people.  Joy is contagious!  I immediately thought of our walk with Jesus and how it should affect people like this.  The joy we have in knowing Him should be contagious, obvious, bubbling over and drawing people in.  Jesus promised that if we lift him up He would draw people to Himself.  What better way than to be full of joy and hope.  People are definitely looking for that.  I wish I could have been at this train station, dancing and leaping with these people!  How exhilarating!   Complete freedom and fun.  No worries of what people are thinking.  Contagious, beautiful, swelling joy!

How beautiful our world would be if mankind could interact like this – enjoying life, working together, having fun, celebrating…a preview of what heaven will be like.

Bummer

Posted on by
1

img_0387Yesterday afternoon I hopped into our gold mini-van with my three daughters and two of their friends.  We headed happily down the road toward Ft. Wayne to see “Winter Jam” an annual concert event with 5-6 great Christian bands and a speaker.  My girls and I have probably been to 4-5 Winter Jams in the past few years and love it every time.  We had been looking forward to it for several months.

The cool thing about Winter Jam is that the tickets are only $10 each.  Of course, there is no reserved seating so you have to get there early to get a good seat.  We didn’t think about the fact that if enough peeps showed up, you have to get there early to get a seat period.  Well, we weren’t as early this year with the 2-hour drive and having to wait until school was out to take off so when we got there, the doors had already opened and there was a mile-long line twisting and winding all through the broad parking lot.  img_0393At least it was sunny out, even though still chilly.  We waited, walked a few steps, waited some more, hoped and hoped as we got closer that before long the line would really start moving and we’d be finding our way to some seats and an awesome evening of music, shouting, standing and clapping, and fun.

img_0390A guy came out and started walking from the back of the line up toward where we stood.  We heard him telling people something as he walked along.  As he got closer we heard him talking about an extra music appearance at a local church following the concert and then he turned to us and said, “You’re not getting in.  Sold out show.”  After a moment of shock and disbelief, the line started breaking up as the people around us began to wander back to their cars, vans and church buses.  We stood there for a moment looking at each other – “What?!”  “No way!”   Continue reading →