I'm listening to drugs

How is it that life's simplest and purest joys come in the strangest fashions?  I ran into a link to a site that lets me stream Relient k's new cd and it has brought me great, albeit sleepy, contentedness for the better part of two hours.  I hesitate to go to bed because it is like a drug.  I have to listen to it because it's so good. And the next time it just might be even better.

For a long time I thought that I was a really bad person for not listening too closely to the lyrics of songs.  I was afraid that I should be more like Jones who seems to carefully weigh the value of the lyrics before committing to liking the song or not.  (I don't mean to make him sound too thorough of a scale.  But seriously.  He's a superb guy.  Whom, BTW Wally, I haven't seen or talked to in a while...hmm...and I never got back that paper he gave me.  Despicable friendliness right there.)  Things changed a few days ago when I realized that while I listen to a fair share of secular music, the most meaningful songs to me, the ones that I return to time and again, the ones that make me stop and listen and live more heartily afterwards, they are always ones that have quality lyrics.  Many of them are labeled as Christian songs, but some are not.  Either way, the songs are inspirational to me.

I don't know why Lucifer thought there was something he was missing out on.  Director of Heavenly Music.  I'd take that title.  I bet it was delicious to hear that music.  Delete, rewrite:  I bet it will be delicious to hear that music.

Georgina

Language is so neat.  In Christian Beliefs, Pastor Nixon was explaining how we are made in the image of God and that there are three facets of that:  rationality, spirituality, and morality (plus a forth which combines those three: relational capacity).  Three more facets are included in rationality:  future orientation, transcendent thoughts, and speech.  He defined speech as the use of words to creatively communication with others.  I like his inclusion of speech as a part of our rationality and creation in the image of God.

I helped Georgina tonight at our ESL class.  She is a dear old woman who hobbles in with a cane and gingerly takes a seat at the table.  For a couple class periods, the main teacher would include her in the group's rounds as we went through examples of conversations and such.  We soon found out that she was not up for it and could hardly understand anything, which made it difficult to advance with the group without dropping her like unnecessary cargo on a fleeing ship.

This week, I worked with her one-on-one and we seemed to do all right.  I don't know exactly what country she's from, but we got along well in Spanish and made some progress in English as well.  It's so interesting to watch her grasp concepts and relate things she knows in Spanish to their English counterparts.  It's sometimes difficult for me to explain things and difficult for her to wrap her mind around some ideas or words, but we were both thankful for the other's efforts by the end of the lesson.

There is not much that I can teach God. Ok, there is nothing I can teach God.  But I certainly feel like He's patient with me more often than is right.  I mean, He goes beyond right and hits downright merciful every day.  My mind is feeble and my efforts weak.  I don't yet speak His language.  But I'm slowly learning and He is patiently teaching me.  Someday I believe that we will use just the right words to creatively communicate with each other in speech.  Until then, I, like Georgina, allow a small, but sincere smile, and a quiet gracias.