Gratitude Stories ~ Do You Sing?

Greetings Dear Reader,

If your answer to the above question is a resounding “NO”, please stay with me a moment.  The story may be of use to you anyway.  I know that I will benefit from knowing you heard it. 

Two of the items that are significant for me on this journey are music and my deep dive into the letter to the Ephesians.  I am almost done with the dive into Ephesians and will share more about that later.  Of note here, however, is the conjunction of this letter and music.

Music truly helps me to express my heart when all else fails.  Songs are in my mind constantly and they teach me much.  They also help me see truths that can get lost on the non-emotional reasoning side of my brain.  I would have you consider for a moment what Paul says to the Ephesians concerning music: 

“…be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV)

Someone I love once told me that it really helped her when I spoke the words of songs to her.  I have always held that it is not the style of music that matters as much as the content.  My mind conjures a song in almost every situation in which I exist.  I am compelled at times to start quoting or sometimes singing what is dancing through my mind to others.  As you can imagine this is received with everything from joy to thinking I am mad.

Then there are the times when songs overwhelm and hold me in their grip until they teach me what they wish me to learn.  As I have been learning to allow God to Father me, I have had to deal with years of treating him as silent in this area.  It was not conscious or intentional.  It is still true.

Then the song that follows crashed on me like a fifty-foot wave.  It showed me over and over that even when I perceived that God is silent, he is speaking loudly and clearly to me in song.  My gratitude story is clearly that I have a Father who constantly sings to me and wishes for me to pass that on to others. 

Take the time to listen to this song Dear Reader. Even when there is silence the Father of Creation sings to us in ways we do not perceive.  He is working every instant to bring all things back to good.  He calls us constantly home.  He is the true pied piper and his tune will reach us all eventually.  I am grateful to be a part of that song.

The Silence Of God – Michael Card

It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith

It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane

When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod

And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God

It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart

When he has to remember what broke him apart

This yoke may be easy, but this burden is not

When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God

But when you have to listen to the voices of the mob

Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got

When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross

Then what about the times when even followers get lost?

'Cause we all get lost sometimes...

There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll

In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold

He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a stone

All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone

And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot

What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought

So, when the questions dissolve into the silence of God

The aching may remain, but the breaking does not

The aching may remain, but the breaking does not

In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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