stopping to read

I noticed something the other day while going through my music. I had to find a song that had signifigance in my life and prepare a speech for it. Racking my brain wasn't working, so I pulled out the lyric sheets from the CD cases. As I read the lyrics, I discovered that a lot of them didn't make sense without the music. I read countless songs aloud, and none of them seemed to tell a story. I began to think of how I've been singing songs that don't have a comprehensive story to tell. I was looking for something outside of the worship realm. And I found that the songs just didn't make sense if they didn't speak of His goodness. I guess some artists aren't really writers. They just sing a lot of pretty words strung together by a melody with their voice to bring it alive. The lyrics I was reading through had no excitement without the music.

Frustrated, I began to think of songs that had been of meaning in my life since I first heard them. Although I enjoy many of them, very few describe me, and my life. I finally settled on "Every Season" from Nichole Nordeman. And I discovered a newfound appreciation for this woman of God I will probably never meet. She takes secular songs and makes them her own. If I didn't know better, she might as well have written those songs herself. But she knows how to write, play and sing a story about life in a special way. I think I've cried at almost all of her songs. Because they're real. Because they make you consider life in all of its wonder. This particular song reminds me that even as the seasons of nature change, so do the seasons in life. I'm not one that enjoys change once I've become comfortable, but it is so nice to dwell on green, lively mountain-tops sometimes! I hate having to go through dry seasons, seasons of weariness and little faith. But I love the fact that at the end of it, there is a "spring" ahead. A new chance at life and a welcome change.

Here are the lyrics if you've never seen them. Try reading it. You'll find that it even rhymes!

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You in children's games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun in full of fun and wonder
You are summer

And even when the trees, have just surrenedered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves, in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks, for what has been and what's to come
You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice You when branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that's new, has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through, is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You, and how You make me new
With every season's change
And so it will be, as You are re-creating me
Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring




And so life continues in this pattern of seasons. And yet, as the song states, I can see God working all around me. Even if I'm not listening, I know He's still speaking. And sometimes it takes more than just listening to understand His ways. Sometimes it requires a little reading to find out for yourself.