From My Heart

I grew up singing songs in church. Lots of songs. Songs in Sunday School. Songs in children's choir. Songs in big church. Songs in youth choir. Songs in adult choir. Songs in the pew. Songs in the praise team. Lots of songs... I can still remember songs from my childhood. I could sing them in my sleep..  Unfortunately, I think too often, we are singing them in our sleep. We sing from rote and our minds wander while the words and the notes pour from our mouths. How often do I sing a song on Sunday from start to finish while my mind wanders to what everyone is wearing, or what's for lunch, or... you get the picture. I love singing. I love the children's songs and the choir anthems and the old hymns and the contemporary praise and worship music. I love it all - I really do. But I think if just every once in awhile we slowed it down enough to really think about the words, we would sing with renewed vigor. Or maybe, we would find ourselves so choked up by what we are si...

Larry and I left home yesterday to begin the trek northward to the Tennessee mountains. This is one of our favorite places, but we don't generally journey there this time of the year. What draws us this year is a new grandbaby. As we are making our way through northern Georgia, the reason we choose a different season is abundantly clear. Although winter is technically over, the landscape is relatively bare. In many places the grass is still brown, trees look dead and leafless. There is a drab lack of color. We have been this way before. In the spring when the green is especially vibrant and the leaves look particularly tender. We have been this way in the summer when flowers are blooming and wildlife is thriving. We have been this way in the fall when leaves are yellow and gold and red and orange - when the mountains appear to be on fire. We know there is life here - we just can't see it right now. Life is always a cycle. I recently lost two elderly family members. They h...

You sit in an office...staring at a computer...performing the same repetitive tasks over and over...wondering why you are here... And then, God gives you a window. A window that looks out at the world He created. Suddenly, in the midst of the mundane, you can see the sun breaking through the tops of the trees. Shining through the glass. Warming your face. Causing the grass to sparkle as it reflects off the dew. Or maybe the sun is hiding today, and, instead, you get a rainstorm so close you feel you need an umbrella. Just on the other side of the glass. And we cannot forget the visitors who come to keep you company. The regal egret, slowly picking his way through the landscaping. He stops and eyes any movement he sees coming from inside the glass on his way by. And there are the cardinals that visit the large palmetto bush just the other side of the lawn. The little stray cat that stops and peaks in the window to see what you are doing from time to time with her belly full of k...