A New Song

Today begins a new month. Unlike most other months this year it comes with significant changes. The time changed last night. I both love and hate the fall time change. I like that I get an extra hour of sleep. I do not like the fact that the days get shorter.

November is also a time in North Carolina of great beauty. We love the changing colors and well we should. they are one of God’s grandest displays. I am breathless every year at the canopy of beauty with which God robes this part of the world. Ironically, those colors point to the fact that things are changing. The irony of that fact lies in the growing reality that change is not especially easy for any of us, yet we love the process of changes in the colors of fall.

In Psalm 40 (mentioned in the previous blog) David writes “you have put a new song in my mouth”. This November 1 has me learning a new song in that we have closed a chapter in Church at the Triangle. Because of many issues we had to make the difficult decision that October 25 would be our last Sunday of operations. I shared then that we would begin to learn a new song.

Singing a new song is not always the most pleasant process. A new song has a different rhythm, a unknown melody, unfamiliar words and many other new nuances. When I first hear a new song I am simply a listener. I cannot sing the first time I must hear and learn. There are many things that cause me to connect with a new song. I am attracted to a new song when the melody is pleasing to my taste, when the presentation is done well, when the words connect with my soul, when the style is in keeping with my own and usually when there is an emotional tie of some sort.

I am confident that there are many lessons to be learned in this analogy. I am trying to absorb them in this season. I do not know how long this season will last. I simply know that today, I begin learning a new song. I am back to listening in order to learn. I am eager to learn the song well enough to sing it with all my being.