my journey, one tape at a time

This weekend while cleaning I found a box full of old cassette tapes. Yes, I still have some of those. I couldn't throw away some fabulous mixed tapes that either I made or were made for me. College mixes, high school summer mixes, 'cross country trip mix, etc. They are too priceless and precious to part with. How can you part with songs that itunes would laugh at you should you search for them?

In my box is a tape from way back in the day. We're talking 1st and 2nd grade back in the day. There is a classic collection of math games that my 2nd grade teacher recorded for me along with a personal note at the end. There is my 1st grade class singing a song at our Christmas assembly. There's a song from my 5th grade dance recital. There is a recording of me (with my friend Chrissy) in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade just reading random papers that I found. One of those papers was from Catholic mass. My young Jersey accent is reading about how Jesus died for us, struggling to pronounce some words. It's heartwarming. How can you throw that away?

It's sad that many people never experienced both the joy and agony of trying to hit the record button at just the right time while awaiting your favorite song on Casey Kasem's Top 40 (or 20 or 10) countdown. Yup, I have a tape that has some of those moments.

Then there is the tape from my senior year of college where many InterVarsity members piled into one apartment to record all of the songs that we loved singing for four years. We rotated guitar players (myself included) and all sang a joyful noise to God, to each other and in remembrance of four years of growth, friendship and love.

These tapes are a part of me. In a way they are kind of like those piles of rocks turned altars that people erected in the Bible in order to remember what God had done. Yes these tapes are my musical journey but they are my spiritual journey as well. They sustained me, made me laugh, made me cry, made me hope, made me sing along, made me dance....

Luckily I have a stereo with a tape deck (two actually) so that I can enjoy this walk down memory lane now and any time I need a reminder of what I was listening to at a particular time in my life. The remembrance continues, one tape at a time.

Evan Almighty

I watched Evan Almighty today and like Bruce Almighty before it, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it and how much I took from it.

It reminded me that God does often ask us to do absolutely crazy things yet there is a very good purpose behind it. It might make absolutely no sense to us at the time and we may be accused of and even feel like we are in need of professional help. But it all makes sense in the end.

It reminded me that God does in fact have a sense of humor. I love watching God (Morgan Freeman) laugh at man (Evan). In one scene Evan says to God that building an ark is not in his plans. God gets a good laugh out of man talking about his plans. I imagine God gets quite a good kick out of me when I do or say the same thing.

It reminded me that God does in fact show up in some crazy ways and some crazy places but always at the right time. If we are attuned to him, we’ll know that it is in fact him. Otherwise it just seems like utter randomness or a really sweet waiter.

It reminded me that there is an 11^th commandment – thou shalt do the dance. Okay, so maybe that isn’t something the movie reminded me of but the whole dance thing was pretty funny. God does invite us to do the dance.

If you haven’t seen the movie you should. It’s funny, it’s cute and it’s a good reminder that God really does want to be in relationship with us. You too just might take something from it.

dancing in the rain

Life's not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

I read this quote today. I have no idea who said it (if you know, please let me know) but I know that I love it. It’s pretty profound.

Those of you who know me know that storms and I do not mix. Oh I could tell many storm stories some of which scared the crap out of me at the time but sure do make for great entertainment now. When they come, especially those out of control, crazy thunderstorms, I pray for them to pass. Will them to pass. Beg for protection until they pass. I don’t particularly care for the storms of life either (not that anyone really loves them). My response to life’s storms is pretty much the same as those that are weather related. But life is not about waiting for them to pass.

Those of you who know me also know that being wet and having wet hair (aside from those moments where being wet is warranted, ie at the beach, in a pool etc) and I do not mix. I have this crazy, curly, frizzy head of hair. And that’s on sunny days where there is 0% humidity and absolutely no wind. Get that head of hair wet and watch out. It’s my very own chia-pet. When it’s raining, I use an umbrella, I don’t splash in puddles and I certainly don’t dance in the rain. But life is about dancing in the rain.

It is going to rain. It is going to storm. It is going to do both in weather and in life. Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Go ahead and dance in the rain; both literally and figuratively. A certain freedom just might be found in the rain, in the healing water.

So if I get the choice to wait for the storm to pass or dance…..I hope I dance.

52 - pick me up?

This past weekend I went on our all church retreat to Long Beach Island in NJ. It was a great time to be refreshed and to get to meet/know many 'new' people at church. Truly a blessed time. Although there are many things I could share about/from the weekend, what I will share is how my heart was refreshed by cards.

I love to play games. It's the love of competition side of me. On Friday night a group of us played cards for hours. Friday night became early Saturday morning and the dealing continued. I learned a new card game called Palace which was a blast. Toward the end of the night (or early in the morning) I had the opportunity to teach a few friends my favorite card game - Euchre. I haven't played Euchre in a long time. As a matter of fact the last time I may have played was in Turkey back in 2004. That's a long time ago. Nearly a lifetime has passed since then. Oh but the rules and the love of the game quickly returned.

My team may not have walked away from the table victorious but I walked away a winner. My body may have been tired but my soul was stirred. As my head hit the pillow sometime after 2am, I couldn't help but smile for my heart was full.

I'm ready for a rematch anytime.