Singing Along the Journey

Music

Posts that relate to making or listening to or thinking about music

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More

A Good Friday Meditation, Part 1: Sorrow and Love Flow Mingled Down

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, as Christians everywhere entered into the annual act of remembrance that is known as Holy Week, I was singing with the choir at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA.   The music was lovely, the choir very, very good, and the sermon meaningful, but what stuck with me through this week of preparation and searching and devotion was the offertory anthem we sang.  It was not some famous work or some especially difficult piece -- it was just a Hal Hopson arrangement of that most famous of famous hymn texts by Isaac Watts, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."  The words were so familiar,…
Read More

Wait, is it already Advent?

Yes, I admit it.  I am behind.  Travelling will do that to me.  The end of the semester will do that to me.  Preparing for a concert where I am singing something totally new (like I am next week) pushes all sense of time and season out of the way.  Today, however, I decided to face the truth -- Advent has begun without me. And so, while I am busy getting my act together, I convinced myself that one good Advent devotional activity would be to go back and read some of the things that I myself wrote in years past during this season.  I hope you will not mind…
Read More

Patiently…Advent 2013 Day 18

One of my favorite pieces of music for this season is a work by Camille Saint-Saens called the Oratorio de Noel.  I was lucky enough to perform it a couple of times; it doesn't get nearly as much performance as Handel's Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, probably because it is in truth most suited to the kind of worship experience you have at a candlelit midnight service.  It is a piece of music that beautifully captures the sense of peace that we would all like to feel at that moment when we meet the Christ for the very first time, over and over again. In this work, I get to…
Read More

Praise, praise and more praise…Advent 2013 Day 17

I'm sitting here at my computer, letting the past few days unwind and thinking what a long road I've traveled to get to this moment, the end of a semester interrupted by surgery and recovery and changes of all kind.  But I made it...and maybe I can get back to something a little more normal...at least for me. And so I think it is right and fit that I should end this day with our reading -- Psalm 8, the very first hymn of praise in the Book of Psalms: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the…
Read More

Watch for the dawn…

Everywhere in the world I have traveled, on at least one day, I make it a point to rise in the dark, grab my camera, and go to some advantageous point to sit and wait for the sunrise.  Some people like sunsets; I crave the moment when dawn breaks.  The picture I've included here is a picture of the sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, but I could just as easily have shown you dawn over Mexico, Spain, Bulgaria, Arizona and many other places...you can imagine that my photo file is somewhat difficult to manage. You see, in that moment when darkness becomes light, I see all the possibilities…
Read More

My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
Read More

I hear music in the air…

Today we have continued our journey with the most amazing places:  first, the Western Wall tunnels, then a walk down the Palm Sunday Road from the Mount of Olives to the Church at Gethsemane, followed by a visit with our colleagues in faith at the Bethlehem Bible College, and then a visit to the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Cave.  And all day long, at each and every place, there was music -- in my head. As we walked through the tunnels dug by Rabbis seeking access to the Western Wall when none was available, as we stared at the gigantic stones that are the foundation of that wall…
Read More

Let your light shine…

The opportunity to commemorate the day of Pentecost in Israel was an opportunity beyond my imagining.  Why?  Well, because I am one of those people who, if I could only attend church one day a year, would choose Pentecost over Easter and Christmas or almost any other day in the liturgical calendar.  So the chance to stand on the land of the peoples who gave birth to my faith, a faith that in many ways was really born this day -- well, that was a great gift.  And if you want to read about the events of the day, no one can tell you that story better than my friend…
Read More

And yes, now it is time for a research paper…

Seven years ago (such a very long time ago, it seems now), I had the idea to produce a concert on Good Friday at my then very new place of employment, the Calvary Baptist Church.  I was not yet a member.  The truth was, very few people in the congregation knew anything about me except that I sang with great gusto in the choir and seemed to be pleasant enough to talk to at the coffee hour.  In the previous year, someone of great importance in my musical and spiritual life had died, and I wanted to do a concert in his honor for one of his favorite charities.  I…
Read More

And why is it that I follow Jesus?

Yes, that is our question of the day.  Not an easy question, but one with a simple answer:  I follow Jesus because that is what I must do.   And if I tell the truth, there are days I would rather not. There are days when the price feels too high, in terms of energy and sacrifice. There are days when it feels really, really lonely to follow Jesus. There are days when it seems like a fairy tale, a myth, a totally implausible belief that God could be made flesh and walk upon this earth, experiencing anger and illness and pain and joy, just as we do.  There are many days when…
Read More