We sing this hymn at Thanksgiving, but what if the words feel inauthentic to you this Thanksgiving? Do you ever have running thoughts like these when you sing? Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home; Lord, I’m not feeling thankful today, at least not thankful enough to Read more…
If we’ve all learned anything from 2020, we’ve learned that our plans actually submit to the sovereign Lord who orders all things. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps (Prov. 16:9). Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that Read more…
I wondered about the author of this hymn’s lyrics (God Moves in a Mysterious Way, Cowper, W., 1773). What happened in this believer’s life? His mother died when he was six. He fell in love but wasn’t allowed to marry her. He went to law school but couldn’t handle the Read more…
As a choral educator, I know the power of singing rounds. All learn a simple melody, repeat it over and over, and when the round begins, groups of people sing the same song at staggered times. I remember singing this round as a teenager, memorizing Scripture with song: Seek ye Read more…
I detest being in conflict. Relational conflict keeps me up at night. I run past conversations on repeat in my mind, ruminate on words I might say tomorrow, and kick myself with guilt for what I did or didn’t say today. When someone disagrees with me, my knee-jerk response is to Read more…
As I live with chronic illness, my body forces me to listen to symptoms of unpredictable flares. Sometimes, my symptoms force me to cease striving (Ps. 46:10a NASB), to rest, to be still, as I use all the therapies doctors suggest. My calendar and to-do lists are wiped clean until symptoms subside. Read more…
The day COVID-19 shut life down became my best day of 2020. But it sure didn’t feel like it in the moment. We silently gathered for a hushed emergency faculty meeting: “Prepare for an imminent, sudden shut down.” I walked down the hall, swallowing tears, to bravely face a class Read more…
I felt anything but a healing peace in my problems. I was “wearied by the length of [my] way” (Is. 57:10 ESV) and I felt down, low, and weak. My frustration and anxiety over unwanted problems produced exhaustion. No wonder I felt no peace. I needed to look away from my desperate Read more…
Are you experiencing a new, even desperate, yearning for intimacy with God? Maybe it’s just me, but this pandemic has given me a deeper longing. Written for those experiencing discouragement, attack, and loneliness in exile, Isaiah 35 describes my longing well…maybe it will encourage you too. Five S’s leap from Read more…
Singing Christ’s hope into suffering includes singing of heaven as He releases our grip on this world. Before the Lord graciously drew us to Himself in Christ, we had no hope and were without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, we have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13 ESV)! Read more…
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