So why the video? Well, first, watch it and then come back to read my caption.

Ok, now that you’ve watched… See all the places, the faces? They are just like you and I. Different culture, different lives. Still human and each one needing to be loved. Still connected to us. Still human and in the image of God. Right?

Whether man, woman, or child - abled or disabled - brown, black, tan, white or yellow - in the midst of peace or a bombed war zone… They are all in the image of God. Right?

However, when we look in these faces, what truly is our response? Unknown prejudice, stereotype, judgement? Do we really know these people at all? Have we simply superimposed a contrived image over who they really are? I know my hidden, unbeknownst to me, preconceptions were challenged simply by viewing this video.

To see these people, all dancing, vividly reminds me of a few verses:

1 John 4:7-12.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Galations 3:28:

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Seeing videos like this make me excited. They point me to verses and make me want to tell every single person about Jesus. If Christians could accept every single one of these souls and show them the love of God … whether American or Pakistani, male or female, etc. etc. etc., what exactly would our global culture look like? How then would we live?

1 John 1:5-7.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

So, trip the light? I think so.

{RandsomeDove}

S.D.G.

Yes, I realize it is, technically, past midnight so it’s really January 2ND, but I haven’t gone to sleep yet so I’m pretending it’s still the 1st. Be ever so kind and grant me this one delusion.

So let’s, like everyone else, talk resolutions. Do you have one? Many perhaps? If you are like me, you still can’t quite settle on all the things you want to be most resolved about. However, I would like to suggest something. While “getting healthy” is an oldy and a goody in the resolutions world, let’s try something new this year. A recent sermon I heard challenged me to make my resolutions about God, not me. As a result, here was the one I came to settle on about two weeks ago: Be with God first. This is similar to my resolution two years ago, to, “go to God first” (instead of always running to others first).  This new one however is different because it pushes me to seek my company with God, not just go to Him for advice like He’s my 24/7 on-call Therapist.

In a coming year full of transition and wrapping up many years of work meanwhile others have already moved on, I see already a potential for intensified loneliness. And yet who is my Best Friend? My Comforter, Confidant and King? Right.

This year I want to really, truly, and actually be with God first and stay with Him too. No matter the ups and downs, exhilarating triumphs and supreme disappointments, I’ll be in the pleasure of His company the whole way through. That’s the plan. Here’s hoping I’m good company in return.

See ya on the flipside.

{RandsomeDove}

S.D.G.

Ah, discord and uncertainty, such plagues to the perfectionist.

I can’t count how many times I’ve found myself frustrated with the discord or uncertainties in my life. While I believe God reigns sovereign in my life, I still have my fair share of struggles and I burn the midnight oil pondering about what I should do to resolve whatever the current conflict in my life is. I want to find the perfect solution to every problem and act/react in the best possible way, but often I just find myself in the lovely state known as “analysis paralysis.” I think and I think and I think - trying to find the final chord of resolution to achieve peace once again in my little ecosystem, whatever it may be: social, familial, relational, psychological, spiritual, whatever.

I then become entangled with worries for the future and regrets from the past. Muddling over what I’ve done to exacerbate the situation or worrying about repeating folly. Either way, I find myself wasting all my time energy to solve a problem to which there is no answer available upon the time and date of my request.

But what else am I to do? Is it just me that ends up in this entangling quasi-psychosis?

Upon a bit of thought about this (ok, ok, a lot. As stated I’m not one to under-process), and after discussing the dilemma with multiple people I have come o a surprising conclusion: 

Stop.

That’s right. STOP! Like big and red stop sign STOP. Just quit it. Stop trying to figure things out as if you possessed a crystal ball. The more we worry over a situation the tighter our grip gets on our life and the less room we give to God to work. What if, instead of trying to always change tomorrow, we live in today and trust God enough to accept the fact that we can’t single-handedly solve all our problems? Why should we do this? Take a gander at Proverbs 19:21 – “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Or perhaps Proverbs 20:24 – “A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?” I waste so very much time stressing about finding a solution to whatever situation I am in and being discontent at where I am at rather than being ok with where things are and having faith they will eventually change. So let’s accept where things are at and pray for wisdom as we continue on in the frustrations and trials of life —- meanwhile facing the fact that no matter how wise we are, it’s still God that’s making things work.

{RandsomeDove}

S.D.G.

This past summer I realized that I truly do not fully grasp the concept of “resting.”

To me, activities where I’m learning are quite engaging and enjoyable - unlike other parts of life. Therefore, I see them as an oasis in the middle of a desert otherwise known as monotony. For me, I’ve always considered these activities “rest.” However, standing at the kitchen sink, looking out over the fields and semi-scolding myself over the fact it was already after four o’clock in the afternoon and I had done nothing of real consequence - no new foreign language learning, no instruments, no writing, no NOTHING…

It hit me.

“—-maybe rest means literally not doing anything?”

This paradigm shift made me stop in my mental tracks. “Have I really not understood this concept? All this time? It is ok and acceptable to, in moderation, take time to literally do nothing??”

Dear reader, grant me grace, stifle your chuckle as I admit that I did not completely know if this was truly what rest was after all. At the time I wrote down, “Upon more pondering of the subject, I daresay I will come to terms with the truth of the matter whatever that may turn out to be…” and to be honest, even now I have to sort it a bit in my head. Looking back on the last few months though, I can see how this thinking has completely revolutionized how I live. It’s like I’ve been awoken to a whole new existence. To think, however, nearly 24 years and I am finally grasping such an elementary concept! Not to mention nearly 24 years of not knowing I was struggling to grasp the concept. Elementary, my dear Watson, indeed.

In the meantime, Psalm 46:10 will continue to imbue my thoughts:

“Be still and know that I am God…”

Ah, yes.

{RandsomeDove}

S.D.G.

A dear friend once related to me that he felt God had huge plans for him being a leader: plans that involved a lot of hard work and commitment as well as a great deal of time out in the public eye. While he was excited about this and had evident passion for Jesus and the spreading of the Gospel, he also felt its drawbacks. “Sometimes though,” he admitted, “I kinda just want to live a quiet life out on a farm somewhere or something.” After some probing on my part he extrapolated upon this point and explained that he feels God has gifted him and he really does want to lead, enact change, and “do big things for Jesus,” but sometimes it just seems like, basically, a lot of spotlight and stressful work. And perhaps, I would venture, a little scary. I remember completely resonating with this sentiment at the time, and frankly, I still do.

Throughout my life I’ve wanted to change myself, people, culture, for the better (unfortunately not always starting with myself). Social justice. Homes for all orphans. Eradication of poverty. Peace. And boy have I been vocal about my opinions. At the ripe old age of eight I can remember my embarrassed parents trying to hush me as I stood on my ever-present soap box proclaiming the evils of tobacco and cigarettes in the middle of a Kansas crowd gathered to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s birth. Something about the fact that most of the crowd was comprised of tobacco farmers made my parents a little uneasy about my budding foot-in-mouth syndrome.

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Time to Wonder.

As a musician and teacher (who is meanwhile a terribly practical person), so often I’ve been plagued with the question: When the world needs so much more, why bother with music? Asked to write yet another philosophy of teaching, I frustratingly pounded this out on my keyboard. Oddly enough, I feel as though it really helped me focus my purposes in music education further. I’m not there yet, but I’m on my way.

I believe all peoples of every country, ethnicity, and creed should have a chance to participate in music.

Music, however, is not essential to survive, nor is music essential to be happy. Music is not even essential to have a good life.

However, I believe that music will improve the quality of one’s life. A person should first be fed, given clean water, and loved. They should have a roof over their head and a community to take care of them in times of need. They should be taught to read and write so that they can learn from those that have gone before them and also pass down their knowledge to those to come. Above all a person should be made to feel important, valued, and loved.

I believe this can somehow be conveyed through teaching them music.

I could be the best band director in North America, with the best instruments and the biggest budget, but if I cannot create a safe place for my students to express themselves, how can I truly teach them? I could be the most skilled piano instructor in Europe, have an overflowing studio with virtuosos aplenty and be highly regarded, but if I cannot show them love and support, it is fruitless. I could be the best choir director in Africa, with the most finely-tuned choir and most precisely learned repertoire, but if each member is not physically fed and nourished, how then can I nourish their souls with music? The basic needs of each student must be met long before the first successfully completed program, adjudication, competition.

I believe music does not solve one’s problems, but it can help. It does not complete a person, but it can comfort. Music is not necessary in life. However, while it is true that a starving child first needs food, is it enough to meet only the most basic of their needs? Is that where we should stop? Quality of living should be elevated in all respects. I believe that we should not merely wish for every child to survive, but rather to thrive. I believe the arts are a way for this to be ensured.

{RandsomDove}

S.D.G.

Guide my heart - keep it for Yourself.

Hold me close - bury my soul in Your arms.

Quench my thirst, nourish my spirit.

Whisper gently Your truths, caress my frail hands given to Your service.

Assure my future, guide my stumbling feet!

The softness of Your touch brings me peace in the tempest, the boiling sea.

Sing to me the lullaby, the secret melody of Your Holy Voice.

Shapes surround me as wild animals in a shadowed wood but Your brilliance wipes the memory of them from the earth and illuminates my journey.

Who can I turn to, a friend, a brother, a sister? A mother, a father, a lover?

No! None of these will last.

Though they be gifts from You, oh Lord! -Do not let me turn my face away lest I believe the gift is greater than the Giver!

Like a fine craftsman, You, my Holy Father, know every component, and are working each little part of me out like perfect gold, filigreed and fine.

You love me more than I would ever dare to hope, filling my every need with good things I do not deserve.

You, oh God, You are the the indescribable sunrise, bursting my heart with the joy of Your beauty, Your power and Your love.

{RandsomDove}

S.D.G.

[2011]