Am I Singing ? ? ?

Is everything in my life as a song?

This is the question upon my heart in this time...

If I know that eternity is filled with His praises, and if I know that His word tells me to sing joyfully unto my God, and if a heart as a song brings rhythm to the events of life, then it is a question worth being pondered...is everything in my life being played out as a song?

Do i look for opportunities to take what is dull and make it into something beautiful. Oh the beauty that comes to a monotone sound accompanied by a drum or a harmony. Mundane takes on extraordinary when song is brought to our living. 

I am told in Zephaniah 3:17 that my God rejoices over me with sining. My God is a God of song.

As I walked along the island pathways this day, I listened as greetings took place. Words and gestures that are so common to me now after having spent over a year in this culture; yet today such common gestures took on a song. Brought to my attention is the way that so much of the Luganda language portrays itself in a melodic tone. To greet, one would say (spelling thus for pronunciational purposes)

Wa-suz-ie otia- nyo Nyabo or Ssebo

To which, the other would respond, "Bulungi"

"Jee-bale cyo Nyabo"

"Ka-ley, na-way, jee-bale cyo Nyabo"

Do you hear the sound? Ka-ley, Na-way. The rhyme, combined with the smile and gentle tone that comes from these dark lips, bringing forth a song.

They find a reason to appreciate and a reason to smile, regardless of how good or misfortunate life's events have been. Is it that they are forced to sing and we are not? No, it is that they choose to sing and you and I commonly do not.

When the base tone of our life becomes loud or hard to sing above, we commonly turn off all sound and silence the rhythm of our hearts sung out through our lips. How common it is to see one who is going through a hard trial to sit in silence, to sit with such pain on their face or discouragement worn upon their heart. How many Christians allow the music to cease in their lives. The minor keys of life have begun to play and in response they ended the song. To such a setting i think of Job, as he declared in wisdom, (paraphrased) "Can you accept the good things from God and not the hard things? Who are we to complain?" and in the latter part of his trial, he chose to sing, "My Redeemer lives!" (Job 2:10, Job 19:25). Job's heart choose to sing through the minor and major tones and trials of his life. What about you and I?

Will we choose to find a reason to appreciate, a reason to adore, a reason to praise our God in all tones of our living? Just as a song cannot consist with balance and quality apart from a combination of minor and major chords, likewise you and I cannot be found to be complete and balanced Christians containing the quality and knowledge of Christ apart from allowing the song to keep playing--choose to keep singing through the circumstances of life. 

Will I choose to sing?

Will I choose to respond to the song of my Savior upon me, and the call of His word upon my life to make a joyful sound unto His name?

May the lessons He allows me to hear each day be as music to my ears that I may learn to sing through the events, greetings, dealings, and circumstances good and hard of this life. Then we can be found to be living sacrifices of praise to our King. Amen.

Hope Resides Here. . .

Journal entry after a day of ministry in island medical outreach...I recorded results for HIV/AID Testing. Out of 30 people tested, 8 were positive. Most were young girls, girls of my age. I looked into the eyes of girls too young to hear such news, my heart was grieved, my prayer was penned.

Jesus,                                                                   8th-Feb-2013

You are the only hope to this world...today I witnessed the wages of sin in this life. THe depravity due to the consequences of sin. That people should live in such conditions. That young girls should be exposed to such infection. That life should be so hopeless. Oh the consequences of sin in this life! Dearest Jesus, is this a sight similar to what You saw when You looked down upon mankind and Your heart groaned? Enough to move You to leave Your heavenly throne? To come into the midst of our depravity, to serve despite the weight it bore upon Your heart, and then to give of Yourself that their blinded eyes may see? Have You given me a glimpse into what Your heart may of seen, such passion that followed as You left behind all to come. To serve. To give. That hope may be where hope was lost. That 8 of the 30 might receive life before death knocks at their door?

Father, may the things that You have allowed my eyes to see, may the grief my heart has felt weigh upon me in a righteous way unto Your glory.

Fill this heart with passion and zeal that they might know You, and in Your grace be saved from the state of their sin and hang upon the doorposts of their lives, "HOPE RESIDES HERE". In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.

Sowing. . .

20-Feb-2013

The little child within her mother's loving arms that sits beside me has stitching in her shoes. I know how much these rubber sandal-like shoes cost new, so little; yet when a tear came to these, this mother would sow rather than throw out. How often when I see a tear, I cast away, I buy new--but this woman would instead redeem these shoes and buy them back again for use through needle and thread. 

Dearest Jesus, this evening You allowed me to sit beside a lesson for my heart. You my Lord have done this act of love for me. When my shoes slip, when tears and rips appear in my life, You do not cast me away, but redeem me in confession and mend me again that I may be used to walk before You, to share the story of Your redemption. Thank you for loving me enough to sow me and make me whole. Amen.