Ivory and space...

Tonight I was at Jacksons Java, reading, writing a little, and catching up with some friends. Once every week or so, I try to catch a night like this and get away from the routine, and have some quality time to myself to stop and reflect on what God is doing in my life, and how ultimately I can see His glory in it all. I really went alone, like I said, to have some reflection time, but ended up talking to the college women's bible study that happened to be there. It encouraged me so much to see faithful, Godly girls, pausing their busy schedules, and diving into God's word, exploring the attributes of God. (A table full of girls studying Piper...guys, you better step up your game, just saying!...) Also, my brother and two of his friends came by and I really enjoyed catching up with them as well...

After everyone left, I had a little time to myself to just sit back and enjoy the coffee, and some good music. Most of the night, it was an eclectic blend of world music, some jazz fusion, and indie-type singer songwriter stuff playing in the background, but I caught myself really interested in this one particular piano driven slow jazz song. What caught me was the melody. Not your typical chord-run based jazz, or even standard romantic slow number, this one was so different because of the simplistic melody it presented. Nothing showy, and not blended with your typical complex backing, this seemed intentionally simple to listen to. But it wasn't the song that I caught myself thinking about, it was my reaction. Even though I was trying to enjoy the simple melodic presentation of the song, I found myself tapping my feet, trying to find a rhythm, a beat, or any type of syncopated structure that I could frame this in. But I couldn't. I found myself subconsciously trying to put this song within framework that it was never intended to go in.

What hit me was what God was showing me through this seemingly trivial experience. Sometimes His plan, his melody for our lives, is so simple, so pure, that we find ourselves trying to frame it within the confines of our busy, scheduled, routine life that we have, and it doesn't work. Sometimes we try to understand His sovereignty in ways it was never meant to be understood in. God does not work within our concept of time. He is timeless. He does not move through the lens of our comprehension, He is omniscient. He is God, and who are we to question His ways...

While we are looking for our beat, we are missing His melody...

What a humbling thought, and I had to stop and write these few lines in worshipful response to what He was teaching me:




Such a simple melody
Ivory and space
We force the hand of rhythm
And change the nature of this place

Free from the chains of tempo
And syncopated time
My soul will find contentment
In melody and rhyme

Upon these pillars sanctified
By expression's humble cry
Of worship so harmonious
All vain glories cannot vie


He is God, and who are we to question His ways...

Job 38...Selah

-Trey

Reflections on a home...

Warped by years of living,
A testament to will
Shaped by love, yet cracks abound
And hope it offers still

A sentimental journey
Of mortar, rock, and tree
Generations of identity
Have molded what makes me

Humble in its nature
Abounding not in space or size
Character and necessity,
Not pretension, is its prize

Surrounded by aging glory
The elders of the land
Like patriarchs they stand esteemed
These oaks time will withstand

All the golden times of joy
Like pictures on the wall
Has all been framed by this old house
When memory comes to call

But like an empty canvass
This old square structure stands
To capture strokes of future love
From grace's steady hands

Trey Long 10/2/2012