Music to My Ears

Music can lull a child to sleep. Gentle tunes that accompany the rocking motion in a grandmother’s or mother’s arms to soothe an upset or tired child and help her go to sleep. I have often held a child and put him to sleep while rocking and humming or singing, so I guess my voice is not too hard to bear.

While creating this post, I’m listening to soothing music, alternating piano and classical, and if I don’t fall asleep at the keyboard, you’ll hear what else I have to write. While I enjoy a wide variety of classical music, I also love many popular tunes that carry a melodic rhythm. But for resting, I want something that is gentle and relaxing and without words. 

  

I don’t remember our mother singing us to sleep but perhaps she did, or maybe my grandmother did when she lived with my parents for a few of their early years. I sang to my children at bedtime and now I sing or hum to my grandchildren when I have occasion to settle them for a nap or nighttime. Only when they’re older do they sometimes tell me to stop singing. Can’t win them all.

On a different note, my mother would say some piece of news was ‘music to her ears’ and I might be tempted to use the same expression from time to time. News I’ve long awaited, surprising news that’s happy or unexpected, but very good, might put that line in my head. This phrase is actually an idiom, I discovered. Oxford Dictionary of Idioms says that ‘music to your ears’ means “something that is very pleasant or gratifying to hear or discover.” There’s no mention of musical tones or rhythm or notes at all, just good news.

Tragic news would not be the kind we wish to hear, but news of an exceptional accomplishment, a long-awaited win or news of a new baby born to delighted parents is the kind I speak of.

Maybe we should recoin the phrase ‘music to my ears,’ but I don’t know how else I’d rephrase it. Idioms often mean something quite different than the words used in the term, but this one is easy to understand, I think. Something that’s easy to hear could ring like a melody. It might not rhyme or have a rhythm but is pleasant to take in and repeat. Like music.

As a Christian in an often difficult and sad world, the news that God loves us so much that he sent his son (John 3:16) might ring like music in our ears. Not the false words that led to betrayal. Not the cruel beating or hanging on the cross. Not the disciples running away because they’re afraid, but the act of love. That’s it — ringing like music in our ears. The gladness that comes Easter morning when we finally come out of those gloomy last days of Lent and Holy (hellish) Week. The hallelujahs ring like music in our ears.

I haven’t fallen asleep yet with the relaxing tunes floating from my speakers, but had I not been working towards the deadline of a post, I might have been tempted to turn off my computer sooner and say ‘goodnight.’ The music has been repetitive in rhythm but it is soothing, like ‘charms to soothe the savage breast,’ wrote William Congreve in The Mourning Bride, 1697. I think Shakespeare would have liked the line too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjWMeSoNOzs 

Carolyn Wilker is an author, editor, workshop leader and enjoys music. 
www.carolynwilker.ca

On our way to Uganda and Rwanda to teach about marriage & renewal - HIRD

By Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

On May 5th to 22nd, my wife Janice and I will spend three weeks in Uganda and Rwanda speaking on marriage and renewal. We will first be speaking, by invitation of Canon Medad Birungi, at the Healing for the Nations Conference in Rwentobo, Ntungamo, the site of the East Africa Revival. Last year there was 25,000 people attend this annual renewal conference.  We met Canon Medad through our good friends Pastors Giulio and Lina Gabeli of Westwood Church in Coquitlam. He came to visit our St. Simon's people at a midweek gathering held at one of our congregant's houses. After our time in Uganda, which will involve a brief safari, we will go 100 miles south to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda where we have been invited by Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini to lead a five-day marriage conference.

We will be bringing our new marriage book with us. The title for our new book is 'For Better, For Worse: discovering the keys to a lasting relationship." The book is a popular reworking of my doctoral thesis produced five years ago.

Here is an excerpt from our new book to whet your interest:

Kneeling at the communion rail with her ex-husband, Linda said to her priest, Ed, “Someday I would like to marry Lloyd again.” As Linda had said this several times before in previous sessions—and Lloyd had said the same—Ed said “Why not now?” She replied, “Sure, why not?” Everyone was thrilled that the communion unexpectedly concluded with a romantic marriage service. Linda and Lloyd had been divorced for six years before remarrying that day.[1] We will never forget that wedding celebration.  Linda and Lloyd later took part in our Strengthening Marriage Workshop, and discovered new ways to improve their relationship.

What if we told you that this book, if you put its principles into practice, would send you on a romantic adventure with your beloved? What if we told you that, by reading and applying this book, you would discover the keys to a lasting satisfying relationship?  Marriage is very important to Ed and Janice (authors of this book and organizers of the Strengthening Marriage Workshop).  We have learned much in forty years of marriage, for better and for worse at times, and want to help other couples benefit from our discoveries about how to have a lasting, fulfilling marriage.  We have made many painful mistakes in our marriage. In For Better, for Worse, we pull back the veil on our imperfect marriage and share some of our embarrassing and often humorous moments.  Authentic, non-judgmental story-telling is one of the keys to healing of relationships, especially in marriage. Too many marriages nowadays crash and burn. It doesn’t have to be that way.  Are you willing to try an experiment on how to do relationships in a whole new way?  Would you like to end the cycle of broken relationships and marriages among your family and friends? Healing can start with you. You may remember how Jesus asked the probing question “Do you want to be well?”[2] Do you want your present or future marriage to be whole and healthy?

This book is written for married couples, engaged couples, and those interested in being married one day.  Ed and Janice learned extensively about Family Systems Theory while Ed was doing his doctorate. This book integrates family and biblical wisdom about how to strengthen one’s marriage and relationships. Each of the seventeen chapters unpacks key elements of what a healthy marriage can look like. The first four chapters cover the four weeks of the Strengthening Marriage Workshop, developed during the doctoral studies.  The four-fold focus of these four weeks is on strengths, differences, conflict, and intimacy. Even if you read and apply just the first four chapters, you will gain new eyes to understand your marriage relationship in a brand new way.  Are you tired of seeing your partner with the same old eyes?  Would you like to discover who they really are, beyond the mask?

To say “for better, for worse” sounds very romantic on the wedding day. To live it out ’til death do us part is much more challenging. Many couples naively think that because of their loving feelings toward each other, they won’t face the “for worse” part. Do we have the courage to radically embrace the gift and challenge of the marriage vows “for better, for worse”? Marital joy is a deep joy that spills over into every corner of a family. Marital pain, likewise, is a deep family pain. We know of few families who have not experienced both joy and deep pain in their primary relationships. Has this been the case for your family? This book is about coming alongside people who long for more stable and satisfying marriages. Throughout the book, questions are asked that you can work on, perhaps through journalling and, at the right time, through sharing with your partner.  Thoughtful questions can take your relationship to a whole new level of intimacy.  If you even half-embrace the principles in this book, your marriage will never be the same.

---

[1] Names have been changed. It was not a coincidence that our St. Simon’s North Vancouver congregation had just the day before taken a bold and costly stance for marriage. We believe that this wedding was a token of the Lord’s favour on our new adventure in which we as a congregation joined the Anglican Mission in Canada, which is covered by thirteen African Archbishops and bishops. To learn more about this journey, you are invited to read Ed’s earlier book Battle for the Soul of Canada.

[2] “Wilt Thou be made whole?” John 5:6  (kjv)

Annual Ottawa Conference: Called to Write in Challenging Times, April 7, 2018, highlights Karen Stiller, John Weston

Annual Ottawa Conference: Called to Write in Challenging Times Saturday, April 7th, 2018

(A limited number of scholarships is available, thanks to a generous donor. First come, first served.)

from 8:15 am to 4:15 pm 6 workshops and 2 special guest speakers. Includes catered lunch. Cost $50

Cardus Ottawa, 45 Rideau St, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON, K1N 5W8 (corner of Rideau St and Sussex Drive; between Chapters and CIBC Branch) For full details and to register click here

 Plenary Speaker 1 - Lessons I Learned in Writing and Faith with Karen Stiller. Karen is a senior editor of Faith Today magazine and a freelance writer and author. She is editor of a series of essays about The Lord’s Prayer, an editor of Evangelicals Around the World: a Global Handbook for the 21st Century, and coauthor of Shifting Stats and Going Missional. Karen Stiller’s books include: The Lord’s Prayer (2017), Shifting Stats Skating the Church (2015) and Going Missional (2010).

Plenary Speaker 2 - Lessons I Learned in Writing and Politics with John Weston. John is a lawyer focusing on Government Relations and Indigenous Affairs; author of the book On! Achieving Excellence In Leadership; and a professional speaker. John has been helping shape Canada’s future for several decades. He cut his teeth on public affairs at age 21 while working on the patriation of Canada’s Constitution under British Columbia’s Deputy Minister Responsible for Constitutional Affairs, and later for the Government of Quebec. From 2008 to 2015, he served as a Canadian Member of Parliament. launching a national program on health and fitness, and winning unanimous approval for two private member’s bills. He is also a founder of the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the National Health and Fitness Foundation, whose mission is to “Make Canada the Fittest Nation on Earth”. www.johnweston.ca

More:
http://ottawachristianwriters.ca/pdf/April2018Conference.pdf

Loose Ends by Rose McCormick Brandon

Readers and movie goers like conclusive endings. The enemy gets shot. The central character lives happily ever after. The story strings all come together in the end. A neat bow is tied. The reader closes the book with a happy sigh. Their beloved character is avenged and safe.

 In real life, loose ends abound. Prisoners falsely accused languish in prison. Justice systems set the guilty free. Dictators flourish. Innocence is quashed. We long for God to swoop in, gather history’s loose ends and tie them in a neat bow – in our time. Sometimes He does. But, more often than not, we have to live with loose ends.

 Eugene Peterson writes, “It takes maturity to live with the loose-endedness of life. But if we refuse to live with it, we exclude something that may very well be essential and dear: the hazards of faith, the mysteries of God.

            Scriptures teaches us to commit our way, our stories, our lives, to God. That means leaving the dangling strings tied to His fingers. Completion is a God word. Only He can provide it.

Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5)

What strings dangle in your life? Are you obsessed with a neat and predictable ending to life’s troubles? Today, tie your loose ends around God’s fingers, allow Him to gather and tie them, in His time.

He has set a time when all your loose ends will be gathered. Commit the dangling strings to Him.

Lord, how badly I need you to make me content with the unfinished business of my life. Today, I tie the loose ends of my life around your creative fingers. Do what pleases You. In the interim, I remain your humble servant.  

***

Rose McCormick Brandon is the author of Promises of Home - Stories of Canada's British Home Children, One Good Word Makes all the Difference, numerous magazine articles and personal stories for compilations like Chicken Soup for the Soul. Rose writes two blogs, Promises of Home and Listening to my Hair Grow. Contact her at: rosembrandon@yahoo.ca 

Candid Cathy — Breaking New Ground

Candid Cathy*? By the word candid I mean transparent, open and honest. 

Credit: UpTo

King of Kings Elementary Scl

Following a brief introduction, she ascended the several steps to the platform and then took her place behind the podium. Her face appeared relaxed and her eyes bright. As is characteristic of her, a smile played around her mouth, raising her cheeks. She began to speak.

My friend Cathy abandoned the faith of her childhood for several decades. During those years she experienced two failed marriages, the second of which included the sting of her husband’s unfaithfulness and the disappearance and murder of her step-daughter, and also two episodes with cancer that necessitated surgery and treatments. Following her father’s death, Cathy recommitted her life to Christ.

I first met her during her recovery from yet a third bout of cancer, which required further surgery and debilitating treatments. Severe hardships, disappointments and set-backs have come Cathy’s way, yet she has continued to grow, tackling fresh challenges and aiming at new horizons in  serving others in Jesus’ name.  

[Sorry, I don't have a photo of Cathy,
but the girl to my right has occasionally
preached in my behalf over the years.]

Several weeks ago, at the first of this year’s six inter-denominational Lenten services in my community, this intrepid lady, Cathy,  – now in her late sixties – broke new ground.

She is at ease in organizing children’s programs and teaching and communicating with kids; however, preaching a homily on an assigned topic to adults from across the age and theological spectrum in the crowded sanctuary of another church, was something new.

After introducing her message with a humorous, but relevant, anecdote, she then connected with the Scripture and gave a beautifully-crafted, well-presented presentation of Jesus’ divinity. Her text verse was John 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  She linked this up with other Scriptures, such as in first chapter of the Hebrews letter.

In well-paced steps she showed why it was necessary that God Himself should provide for the salvation and redemption of humanity from the curse of sin, through His sacrificial death. 

And so, the living, eternal Word – the perfect and exact substance and expression of God Himself – came into the world in the person of Jesus, to live and love, suffer and die. Verse 14 is one of my favourites: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. . . .” (John 1:14a NIV). (Not to forget His resurrection, of course, for that part was to come later in the season.) 

Cathy’s presentation was clear and cogent. My word – you’d think she’d been preaching for decades! I thought.

I enjoy sketching elements of individuals’ lives – especially of people I know or have known personally. But why?

When my mental, emotional and spiritual gaze gets raised in appreciation, gratitude and wonder, at admirable qualities and actions that inspire and reflect God’s love and grace, I hope and pray that others will experience these blessings, too.

In her public preaching debut Cathy broke new ground. 

She continues to inspire others and raise their gaze –

including mine.

~~+~~

* Pseudonym to protect privacy.

~~+~~

Peter A. Black is a retired pastor – well, sort of retired – and lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the Pond -- a children's / family book. ~~+~~

Subtle Yet Obvious Answers by Eleanor Shepherd

   

         How true it is that we often do not see the forest for the trees. We are so close to the trees that we are unaware that we are in a forest. There is probably nowhere where we find more abundant evidence that this rings true than in the life of prayer.

            So many times we pray, asking God to show us some answers to our questions or concerns. Then when we open the Bible we see before us the answer that we are seeking. We somehow seem to forget that another name for the Holy Scriptures is the Word of God. So often that is how he speaks to us. Recall some of the occasions when, like me, you have heard His voice in this way.

            I could tell you of many instances. One of the most graphic for us, my husband and I, was when we were trying to discover if the ministry was part of God’s design for our lives. In this case, we prayed and asked the Lord to show us specifically through Scripture if this was His plan for our lives. We should not have been as awestruck as we were when the next morning, Glen opened his Bible to read where he had left off the day before and found these words from I Corinthians 9: 16 - 17 seemed to jump out at him as he read, “¹⁶ I don’t have any reason to brag about preaching the good news. Preaching is something God told me to do, and if I don’t do it, I am doomed. ¹⁷ If I preach because I want to, I will be paid. But even if I don’t want to, it is still something God has sent me to do.”* 

            When he read these words, Glen called out to me, “Eleanor, I think we have our answer.” As he read the words to me, my response was, “It certainly sounds like it.” Further confirmation came from his breakfast time reading of excerpts from the Scriptures called Living Light. Having been challenged by a friend about making this decision and told that he would probably not respond to such a call because we enjoyed our comfortable lifestyle, the passage that day was more than relevant, with the challenge from Matthew 6: 24, “²⁴ You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”*

            These are obvious ways in which God has spoken to us through the Scriptures. There are also more subtle manners He has communicated with us. It was in reading Psalm 139 that Glen arrived at his conclusions about the subject of abortion. I became convicted that I needed to do something about social justice, to be obedient to God’s plans for my life when I read Micah 6: 8 that says, “The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: “See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God.”*

            There have been times when prayers we are unable to utter for ourselves have also received an answer from the Scriptures offered to us by someone else. Such was the case when our son was paralyzed in a car accident in Vermont. The friend who drove us to the airport in France, to take the flight home shared with us that the Lord had given him some words of comfort to offer to us as we rushed to John’s side. He quoted from Isaiah 30: 15, “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”* 

           

I am not suggesting by this that we should grab any phrase that we like from the Bible and assume it is the answer to our prayer. However I do believe that if in sincerity we ask God to show us His mind on our concerns and then are open to what His Spirit may choose to reveal to us, we will find that the wisdom that He has provided in the handbook that He has provided for us will help us to make good choices.

            One such promise that prompts me to such action occurs many times in the Bible. One of these incidences is in James 1: 5 that says, “If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking.”* This is an invitation that I am happy to respond to and I find He keeps His word.

Word Guild Award
2009

* Bible translation used is Contemporary English Version

Word Guild Award
2011

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