Thursday, August 21, 2008

When Something Is Not Quite Right

"By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life." Psalm 42:8

When I read this verse just a few minutes ago it struck a chord with me. I'm tired this morning. I have not been sleeping the best for the last several weeks, lying awake until all hours, waking early to one random thing or another, that kind of thing. But this verse just reminded me of something. It wasn't that long ago that I would wake up in the night with a song in my head. And not just any random song- a worship or praise song most likely. For a while it would drive me nuts- particularly the more powerful ones, because I'd wake to use the bathroom or something, and then have a hard time going back to sleep.

Lately, I've been missing that. And this verse reminded me that maybe I'm not spending enough time with God these days. "At night his song is with me." I haven't noticed that so much as of late. And maybe I've been missing that a bit, maybe that would be one of the reasons I'm not sleeping so well at night. At any rate, I guess it will never hurt to spend more time with God, or thinking on Him.

You know what I notice about music specifically? It's been a long time since I was a "music person." I used to be that girl who always had music playing. Always! I had a rather large CD collection, and there was always something playing. I always had music on in the car, and it was just something I always had going on. Then I had kids. :-) And when there was music, it was kid-friendly fun stuff, and when there wasn't music it was blessedly quiet. I learned to enjoy the quiet times so much. I still love that. I love it when no electronics are on, no music is playing and the house is completely quiet and peaceful. Yet. Lately I've been re-discovering music. Since I've volunteered to help hunt down new music for church, I listen to quite a bit. Some of it, not so good, some of it fantastic. And although at first I have to listen with a critical ear to see if it's something playable or not, after that, I can simply enjoy the music. We've found some new favorite CD's, and I'll tell you. I can be having the most stressed-out Sunday afternoon, and Andy will pop in one of those CD's and it's like a soothing balm. Almost instantly the stress goes away and I can enjoy the tasks before me. I've had to play the drumset a few times this summer. I don't particularly like playing the drumset- I much prefer playing percussion. But Andy pulls up one of those songs and I start playing along, and before you know it, I'm worshipping God with a pair of sticks.

Music is a powerful thing, and I have to think that if I'm not feeling like I'm sleeping well at night, then the "Lord's Song" is not rightly there like it should be. Not because he's taken it away, but because I've maybe lost a little focus. I need to think and pray on this, see what this means for me today. God wants to be part of everything- even my sleep, and I need to let Him in order for that to happen.

I just love it when I read a verse in the Bible that is clearly meant for me on that particular day. I love His Living Word and all the treasures stored up inside it!

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