Rejoice and Be Merry!

        I thought it would be opportune to take a moment and revel in the blessings God has given me.

         Recently I got back from spending a wonderful weekend with my college friend April, her family, and her C-LARP clan (a perfectly lovely Christian role-playing group), in east TN. It was a rejuvenating time both physically and spiritually.

          Now I'm back at home listening to an album of Christmas music directed, arranged, and/or written by John Rutter, and I'm reflecting on all that God has done for and through me these past two months.

          Only two nights ago I had the great privilege of singing Dvorak's Requiem with the NC Master Chorale. I don't know about everyone else, but I couldn't help but sing my heart out. There's something about singing with a choir and orchestra that simply brings my heart to its knees in wonder and awe before God's glory. It was a moment that was filled with the best kind of joy. The kind that makes your heart ache and the tears fall.
         For that I am truly grateful.

      Last Friday my orchestra gave a concert featuring of space themed music. While the music looked fun, when we first began I didn't think there were going to be any of those really brilliant moments that you get when music moves you deeply. I was wrong.
    The repertoire was not only touching in the extreme, but also the vibrancy of playing with other musicians in concert is simply thrilling. There's nothing quite like it. Yet another moment where my heart throbbed and my eyes watered.
           For that I am truly grateful.

       During the C-LARP event in TN, I had thrilling moments playing a character of my own creation in a brilliant story that my friend and her brother crafted. We danced, we prayed, we acted, we sang, and, while cleaning up, we laughed and reminisced. It made me so happy to be among so many other creative believers who knew how to treat others according to Paul's admonition in Philippians 2, to  

      "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, [to] regard one another as more important than [ourselves, to] not merely look out for our own interests but also for the interests of others." ~ Philippians 2:3-4

       For that I am truly grateful.

     In January I had the great pleasure to be present at my friend Christiana's wedding(another college friend). We unrolled tulle, pinned up hair, shared old memories, danced, and clowned about, and God was exalted through it all. I returned home at peace even in spite of flight difficulties.
   
       For that I am truly grateful.

    This music I'm listening to right now; it may not be traditional repertoire for March, though certainly not the kind of music you can tire of like you can of jingle bells and silent night, but Christmas music is one of my favorite types of music, and you all know I've never minded the raised eyebrow here and there.
      I'm grateful that I can sit here at my desk by my window overlooking our own little patch of woods, listen to Christmas music and write to my heart's content.

       Indeed, for that I am truly grateful.

       Very little passes in our lives today for which we do not have cause to be grateful. I am often reminded just how easy we in America have it. We ought to be the happiest people in the world. God has truly blessed us, and while we must certainly be on our guard that these blessings do not cause us to forget our purpose or start pursuing things rather than Christ, but this is also cause for rejoicing.
     As Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice!" 
           These good things are from God and we ought to rejoice. Certainly I intend to.

     The world right now would have me believe that I am not actually as blessed as I think. They would have me yelling and screaming about who-knows-what, they would have me poking at other people's lives to find problems.
          My flesh contends that God and my current blessings are not actually enough for happiness. More stuff, more people, more time, more recognition, is what I need for true joy.
         The Devil whispers that God isn't the source of these good gifts, that maybe they just happened, or else they're some sort of trap instigated by a cruel power who doesn't actually care.

      Yet I know they're all wrong. Because I've tasted true joy; joy that can only be had from the eternal spring that is Christ.
          And for this, I am eternally grateful.

    So I'll leave you, my friends, with a magnificent old hymn arranged by John Rutter and sung by the Cambridge singers.
       May it remind us all to rejoice and be merry, for our King of love has brought us a chalice filled to the brim with blessing.