Message in a Gather book

It's kind of funny how God communicates sometimes. Not that I'm expecting him to send me a message in a bottle or anything like that. Although it would be pretty sweet to get a little, "You will win $1 million in the lottery" written in whipped cream on my pancakes.

I've taken up tea drinking. Now I've always been a tea drinker, but for the first time since I was rising at 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus to one of my internships senior year, have I taken a serious turn to throwing myself a tea party every day.

And no, God did not reveal his latest plan for my life in a bunch of tea leaves. Hardy har har.

As a result of my two bags of Earl Grey a day, steeped extra long, by the time lunch rolls around I am bouncing off the walls, ready to play fetch or frisbee or something like that. Tuesday was such a day. Having run into my old partner in musical crime at 10pm masses back in the day at Marquette the night before, I did the only thing my over caffeinated brain could think of.

I went to my trunk. Pulled out my Gather Comprehensive II accompaniment books (feel free to laugh here at the fact I carry hymnals around in my trunk) and made a beeline for the Cousins Center chapel.

I was going to play me some church songs.

(Come on now, stop the laughing before you wet your pants. I'm not THAT much of a dork!)

Well. At least I wasn't out committing felonies or something like that.

I started with the peppy and exciting stuff (yes I did just say that in the context of church hymns) before popping over to the psalm section of the book.

And with the light shining in the most picturesque way possible on me at the piano, I began to pray.

Psalm 131: In you O Lord, I have found my peace. Psalm 95: If today you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts. Psalm 23: Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life. Psalm 63: O God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, your love is finer than life. Psalm 91: Be with me Lord, when I am in trouble, be with me Lord, I pray. Psalm 19: Lord you have the words of everlasting life. 

I didn't notice what I was doing at first, just thought my fingers were running over the keys that they were so familiar with in my time accompanying at Marquette. But as my fingertips hunted through psalm after psalm, stopping at particular numbers and glazing over others, I realized that each time my brain picked a song, fingers struck the keys, the words resonating in my head, I was lifting up my own prayer. Each psalm had its own application to what was going on in my life, each carried a special meaning.

I never quite realized God could sneak attack you into praying...but I really shouldn't have put it past him.