I can hear it calling

Just in case you need suggestions for how to pass a Sunday afternoon, listening to your sister practice piano is a delightful option.

In addition to being the center of academic learning, our family's homeschool room is the location for Daddy's 100-ish year old upright piano. It has been part of my life since I was about four years old and each of my siblings and myself has spent time sitting on the bench plunking out keys for our own amusement while Daddy plays his repertoire of hymns and praise choruses. He didn't play very often because of a very busy schedule, but we all recognized the sound of the heavy lid rolling back into the piano as the cue to come dance around the living room and sing. Such is life with little girls.

Of the eight of us children, five have taken at least a year of piano lessons. Anna and Emma are the only ones who are currently sticking with that instrument, the rest of us are hoping to develop talent in other musical areas. Between two people who take lessons, the others who occasionally like to pretend they know how to play, and Daddy, Anna, and myself preparing for church worship music, the piano bench has been kept very warm over the last few years. It is still fun when Daddy plays, but Anna is our primary accompanist and resident soloist. She is the one of our family who is the most gifted when it comes to her particular instrument.

When Anna touches those keys, something wonderful happens. The rest of us sit down and read notes and a melody and that is all we play. Anna turns the notes into a living, breathing entity. Her fingers infuse the melody with emotion and make it into something memorable.

This afternoon, I was thumbing through one of her piano books and found an arrangement called "Longing" that came at out of George Winston's "Autumn" album. I hadn't heard the piece, but seeing as it fit our current time of the year, I asked if she'd try it. She wasn't familiar with it either, but still sight-read it beautifully. Wistfulness and poignancy began wafting through the air and I was again left wondering how music is capable of expressing and provoking emotion. What is it about mere notes and sounds that makes me so intoxicatingly happy in the present moment and yet makes me yearn for something else, something more?

C.S. Lewis accurately describes the emotion through the character of Psyche in "Till We Have Faces": "It was when I was happiest that I longed most. .. And because it was so beautiful, it set me longing, always longing. Somewhere else there must be more of it. Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche, come! But I couldn't (not yet) come and I didn't know where I was to come to. It almost hurt me. I felt like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home."

Is it the longing for heaven? For home? For the beauty there that makes this world seem like a scanty reflection? For the joy that will be beyond anything I can know here? A reminder that I have not yet attained it? Is it the smallest taste of what is to come?

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:22-25

Psalm 33

Shout for joy in the Lord,

O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;

make melody to Him

with the harp of ten strings!

Sing to Him a new song;

play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
For the word of the Lord is upright, and

all His work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

and by the breath of His mouth all their host.

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;

He puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the inhabitants of the world

stand in awe of Him!

For he spoke, and it came to be;

He commanded, and it stood firm.
The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

the plans of His heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people whom He has chosen as His heritage!
The Lord looks down from heaven;

He sees all the children of man;

from where He sits enthroned

He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,

He who fashions the hearts of them all

and observes all their deeds.

The king is not saved by his great army;

a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation,

and by its great might it cannot rescue.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,

on those who hope in His steadfast love,

that He may deliver their soul from death

and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in Him,

because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

One Two Three

Ashley (who blogs here: http://heart-and-home.net/) asked "What are three things that make you smile today?" I am playing along, so here are my three things.

1. Everything fell into place perfectly (or rather, was perfectly ordained and orchestrated by a Sovereign Hand) for my Daddy and my Pastor to make their connecting flight en route to Russia today despite lots of stressful cuircumstances and questions of whether or not they would be able to go. Missing them, still glad they can go. (If you want more details, go to their blog to see what they are up to: www.mvbiblereport.blogspot.com)

2. I found a letter in my mailbox yesterday. It has kept me smiling all the way through today!

3. The sight of cars being chased by a trail of skipping, hopping, dancing leaves wherever they go is delightful. The cars apparently have no idea that they are being trailed. I don't think the leaves have any idea what they are going to do if they actually catch up with the cars either.


You know the funny thing about listing things you like or are thankful for? It is kinda hard to stop once you start. For instance: October is a gorgeous month, even it's name proclaims beauty. October. Joe (the two year old brother) has been doing this adorable thing lately of saying "Need Hug!" whenever I walk by and then proceeding to give me one. Nine and a half weeks till Christmas! I had a lovely chit-chat with my Mom earlier. Tonight, I get to study. (Trying to focus on the get part, forget that sometimes.) And a few more hours until my phone will ring this evening. Do you have a list you want to share?

How easy it is for me to mistakenly take for granted the many gifts that God has given me. Of course God gives me food, health, a loving family, a job, and a home! Why should he not? I am His child after all, I have dedicated my life to Him, doesn't that entitle me to receive my basic needs and a few of my wants thrown in on top? Isn't He just filling His half of the deal that we both signed when I became a Christian? Like a spoiled toddler, I act as though the world revolves around me, as if God ought to sovereignly orchestrate the world's events to suit my desires.

Now, do I ever conciously think those things? No, but my attitude betrays that this is my true mindset. Only when I realize that I deserve nothing but punishment am I able to be humbly grateful for what I have; blessings of redemption and beyond. Even though God, in His infinite mercy and apart from any merit on my part, chose to redeem me with the blood of His Son, He is under no contract to give me one more blessing. He could say "Look, you get to go to heaven once this life is over, that is the one and only thing you are going to receive from me." And that one and only thing ought to be enough to make me spend the rest of my days giving thanks without expectation of anything further.

Yet the Lord doesn't stop at redemption but continues to heap blessing upon blessing. And lately, the Lord has granted me things that I know beyond a doubt I don't deserve and which I could never have brought about by myself. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in my eyes.

I feel sorta kinda a wee bit guilty about not blogging for two months straight...

Sorta kinda guilty, but not really truly guilty because with all the other things that need attention, I stubbornly refuse to be slave to a blogging schedule. But I am still feeling mildly guilty, because I would like to actually stick to my goal of 1-2 blog posts a month. How do those people do it who blog on a daily basis??? My life is just not interesting enough to do that. On the other hand, do people who have time to blog every day actually have a real life? Questions to ponder.

In reality, my life has been interesting lately. At least, it has been in my opinion. So much so, that I haven't wanted to take the time away from enjoying life to blog about it. During the last week though, I have been preparing my Fall schedule. As I was writing lists of all the great things I intend to accomplish and that I want to squeeze into my schedule sideways, "Blog" suddenly appeared on one of the lists, and I realized that I had written it there. Blog? Oh yeah, I do have one of those, don't I? Hmmm, maybe I should go look at it sometime....

And look at me now! Typing away very diligently as though I was actually doing something productive. The best thing about to-do lists? They make procrastination oh so easy. I can feel like I am working because I put an activity on paper and then did it. What a sense of accomplishment to put a check next to: "Blog". Nevermind the fact that "Do Laundry" still has no check next to it.

Fall is such fun. It is like the mid-year New Year. Resolutions, planning, new schedules, to-do lists, anticipation. My organization side kicks in at this time of year with full force . Usually, I wait until August is over to proclaim it the end of Summer but this year I decided that my Summer officially ends on Monday. Yes, the 95 degree weather is mocking me and I have no intention of giving up my flip flops for at least another 4-6 weeks, but it is time for me to start focusing on getting things done. At the moment, my mood is even matching my resolve! We will see whether or not I am still this dedicated once I am done writing schedules and have to start living by them. Come Monday morning, I may decide I need one more week of to-do list writing before summer ends.

I am HERE!

In sunny, windy Southern California to be exact. My family and my Pastor's family (who is also my family, but not by blood, by choice. Meaning, I choose to consider them family, and since God chose both of our families to be part of His Family, then we are technically family by God's choice. Oh, and I guess by blood too. Christ's blood though, not ours. K, I will stop murdering the grammar of the English language now. :)

As I was saying, my families and I are enjoying a relaxing vacation in Southern CA this week and part of next week. The exciting event of the trip begins tonight though, and I would like to invite you all to participate in it from wherever you may be! Come (in the figurative sense) and learn from Steve Lawson, John MacArthur, John Piper, Rick Holland, and CJ Mahaney as the conference is live streamed via the Internet. Go here for details: http://www.resolved.org/SiteLogin.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2flive.aspx


EDITED 7/8 to say:
You can now dowload the sessions for free here (http://www.resolved.org/media.aspx) and they are very worth taking the time to do so! If you listen to nothing else, check out John Piper's and Steve Lawson's sessions. It is so hard for me to pick a favorite as all the speakers are gifted, godly men, so I will just narrow it down to those four sessions by Piper and Lawson. Enjoy!

From My Personal Dictionary:

Idaho: proper noun. Def: 1. Sprinklers at sunset 2. Home.

(click on the picture to see it bigger)

I am still working on my header by the way, so technically I probably should be working on that, but the sprinklers distracted me. Ahhh, happiness.