Mushrooms and Musicians

I've spent the last couple of days cooking mushrooms in Merlot for myself and Red and some other good friends. That plus Tortallini with mushroom and garlic sauce. I can't even begin to tell you how good the food has been. So much better than food from the caf (that's cafeteria to the non-Carson Newman folks). I'm listening to the Vince Guaraldi Trio right now. This soundtrack to the Charlie Brown Christmas is probably the only Christmas music I listen to during the middle of the year. I take that back.......I did put on Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Vesperae Solemnae (I think that's how it's spelled - cultured people will correct me). I got to be a part of that recording when I was in Men's Chorus for CN last Christmas. I guess that when Andrew Peterson come's out with his Christmas cd, I'll put that in year-round too, since it's much more than just Christmas season music to me. God really showed me about writing songs today. I was driving the other day (don't remember where - how typical) and I thought about how small songwriting is in comparison to God's mighty love. It made me look at songwriting as if it was not important enough to do anymore. But today, as I was driving (again), I heard on the radio, a man (I think David Jeremiah) talking about reading Psalms whenever he had trouble or hardship. It got me to thinking, actually, God just flat out showed me. There's a Psalm in there for everything. If you're down, up, left, right, or confined to an amorphus shape, there's a Psalm for how you're feeling. There's a word from God to get you through. And all it is is David, Asaph, and whoever else just writing songs from their hearts about what they're going through. It's not them trying to say something profound - like I often do. I try to say something profound, and what I'm saying might be profound to some, but my attitude when I do that is haughty and shallow. It's not out of love, so it's worthless (If I speak in the tongues of angels, but have not love, I am nothing but a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal). I don't know if you've ever listened to someone play a ten-minute solo on crash cymbals, but personally, after no more than thirty seconds at the max, I feel the overwhelming desire to strangle something. (I haven't really heard a ten-minute cymbal solo, or even a five second cymbal solo...............thank goodness) So anyways (tangent ended), when they write from their hearts, not only is it good stuff, but God uses it to speak to people. And they get something out of it too. Like my friend Nathan told me, you can read good books and get good at writing, but if you don't get out and live your life, you'll never have anything to write about. Thank God for the fact that he uses us.