Disappointment

So what do we do when we're disappointed? I am painfully aware of what I use to do and how I want that to change, like right now. Seems that old habits or ways of reacting are hard to change. What makes it even harder, is that I deal better with my own disappointed, than with someone else's. I'm at a loss of how to deal with that. 


For my stuff, I run and talk to God. I listen for what He's telling me in the small and big things of life. I always hear Him saying, I got this! I got you! But when it's a disappointment that effects, say Preacher man, I feel like I've donned my Wonder Woman out fit and I'm flying out the door headed towards all the bad guys that have caused this issue! I vent and foam at the mouth and really make a rather ugly scene, even if it really is all in my mind. I grab hold of the control stick and I go after it.


That's when it hits me smack in the face and I cock my head to the side a little, squint my eyes and look to the heavens asking, Is there a lesson here? Are you teaching me something, yet again? And that's when I see Jesus smile at me and hear God laugh, not so much at me, as with Jesus.


We all go through Disappointments, it's how we respond and react to them that's the rubber hitting the road. I got the ole' way down pat, it's this new way that I'm reaching for. Mainly cuz the ole' way doesn't do much good, and the fact that Jesus is calling me to a new way of doing things. He's calling me to be Preacher man's help mate, supporter and lifter upper. I have the awesome job of being the under pinning of a man that is listening to God and following His lead. It's not my job to fix the problems, that would be between Jesus and Preacher man. My job is to love him even when I want to shake him. To follow him, even when I think I know better where we are headed. To listen, instead of talk, even when he doesn't talk about it.


My heart is overwhelmed God! Lead me to the rock that is higher than I! Put your arm around my shoulder and cover my mouth with your hand. Help me stay out of the Wonder Woman out fit and be the help mate you made me to be.     

A New Song

One of the things I have been doing for awhile now is reading a Psalm everyday. Just one. Some are short, some long, but I read one a day. It's a great way to start praying scripture and I love coming across the ones that have been made into music that I hear on the radio. That's what the Psalms are, songs. They are also the stories of our lives.


Psalm 40 will forever be my favorite! It is probably the one that got me started on Psalm's in the first place. I was going through a dark time in my life about 10 years ago and someone read it to me and I could not believe that God could be speaking to me in such plain words!

I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the desolate 

pit,

out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.

I love it!! The coolest part is that every time I read it, something different is going on in my life that causes me to go "Yeah God!!!" What this says to me today is, sing a new song! Even if the words are from a long time ago, everyday, every time I read them, it's new song time! That's what makes the Bible a living breathing book! It changes with me, I change because of it!

When I wait, God shows up. He picks me up and dusts me off and put my feet where He wants them. He say's "sing this..." be a witness. It blows my mind that He does this.

I've got some folks reading Psalms daily and being open to what grabs their attention. Then to sit with it to see what God might be saying to them. He never says the same thing to anybody, it's always new and different. I think it's what we should be doing when we read the Psalms in church too...really listen to what's being said, to us, just as if it were coming from God today. So many times we run right over them and don't spend time with them, or we don't even read them. 


Dr Fred says this about the Psalms and music. I believe it needs repeating!


The task of the church musician is an artistic endeavor, but it is more. It is the act of praying and inviting prayer - an invitation to an encounter with God.


As such, the task of a church musician is evangelical, catechetical, and spiritual. Performance is not enough. Singing a new song should alert us to the presence of God. If we are blind to its invitation, we need to hear its purposes declared. If we are ignorant of its logic, we need to be taught. And none of that can be done by a musician who is not alert to the movement of God in his or her own life.


Have you ever been in a service where the Holy Spirit was running the show? Where people were laid out on their faces and the music just kept on, in fact it got deeper as the spirit got deeper? Where it wasn't about the performance, it was about creating an environment where people were free to pray in anyway they wanted, for as long as they wanted. This happens a lot at IHOP (International House Of Prayer) in Kansas City and it's awesome. But God can do it in our churches today if we have the right people doing the "Musician" job. To have a musician invite you into prayer into an encounter with God is truly to sing a new song!