Old Friends

For the past few months this journey has taken me over some rocky ground. Job hunting and rejection on a regular basis is sure fire way to have a usually sunny disposition dampened. So the journey has seemed a little uphill. One becomes hyper-sensitive to slights and perceived slights. It is not a good place to be. My mindset has gotten increasingly moody and morose. Everyday was a little cloudy.

A couple of months ago I had an idea that I ran past my little community of faith. There was some enthusiasm, then a waning of interest, then an opportunity to revisit the idea in a slightly different form, and now the idea has a little bit of momentum. It has to do with our group singing in a public forum, which I haven't done since high school, and it is spiritual songs. So I began to look for a set of discs that I used to listen to all the time that would get my voice back to a certain stage, etc.

Last night I found the discs, stuck under a desk, gathering dust. On the way to Panera this morning I listened to the close, tight, four-part harmony, the really good theology, and realized that I had missed my old friends. They had been my companions on the drives to Abilene for classes, they had helped me study, they had helped drop the theology from my head to my heart. While getting my Masters a few years ago there had not been much encouragement, so the songs of God's love and sacrifice gave me the will to finish.

So I popped one of these old friends in the player in my little Ranger and sang along. It helped me soften the edge of the theology in my head. You see, when theology is all head and no heart it can become strict and unrelenting, judgemental. Music without good theology becomes soft and formless, worthless when the storms rage around. You have to have both, good music and good theology, music for the heart, words for the head.

My old friends are back and as helpful as ever. They put a smile on my face, as old friends always do.

Godspeed out there on the journey, here's hoping the next stage is a little smoother, a little less rocky.
Don