Still breathing, so, not too too late...

It's summer.  I'm a teacher.  I've no excuse for not starting this thing.

To be honest, I've been wrestling with what I want this blog to be, and what the realities of life stick me with.

I want to be a guy who posts a great hymn every day, with a neat and tidy pdf of sheet music attached, complete with melody (traditional or new), lyrics (duh) and guitar chords.  Kind of like the utterly amazing RUF Online Hymnbook or the Hymn Fake Book, published by Hal Leonard.  There are great hymn sites out there, but not nearly enough that give folks a simple chord progression + the melody.  I would like to add to that.

I also want to include ponderings (like this one - see below) on church collects and Scripture passages and such.

Last, I want to make this a vehicle for me to ponder (and perhaps get feedback for) songs under construction.  I'm a Creative Commons type, so I don't mind a little songwriting wiki action.

But today, I'm simply going to finish this bit of whining with some thoughts on what I prayed today from the Divine Hours.  This prayer manual (online and in book form), serves as a modern breviary (prayer manual) that basically uses Scripture, hymns and ancient liturgical prayers to draw us into the presence of God.  Oooh, boy.  Good stuff, that.  I'm forever indebted to my buddy, Cory Aldrich (aka the Bald Man) for introducing it to me back in the day.

Anyway, as I was praying, the "Request for Presence" for today was Psalm 90:14:

Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;

So shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Suddenly, a picture formed in my mind of a heaping, satisfying, sustaining meal to start the day.  But this meal on which I was feasting was God's loving-kindness.  Knowing His deep, unfathomable love for me at the start of every day is enough (should be, shouldn't it?) to make each day a day full of joy, peace and confidence in the Lord.  Jesus fortifies us with His loving-kindness at the beginning of each day, so what could life possibly throw at us that could top that?  I am full, and fat, and happy in Him!

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Another, more songwriter-y bit I came across was the Refrain, a verse that is repeated throughout the litany.  Today's Refrain was from Psalm 56:10, and I was simply blown away at how - even translated to the English - it has rhythm and some pretty sick assonance that translates easily to songwriting.  This bad boy would be quite at home plopped, word-for-word, into a song:

In God the Lord, whose word I praise,

In God I trust, and will not be afraid,

For what can mortals do to me?

Is that not just the badness?  Can you not just picture [place favorite worship leader here] lifting up those words in song?  Right now, my imagination has Mandisa singing them, but then I just saw her in concert last night.  :0)

Chau for now.