Memory and Monday and Rest

Memory is a funny thing. "Who can know it?"

Just this morning I could not recall a very meaningful event from two days ago. Then as I thought about writing for today a memory from over 40 years ago came to mind.

“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” Yes, today is Monday, so there’s that for jogging the memory. But I’m not down. I do remember the Carpenters. What a story.

Did you know Karen was highly regarded for her skills on the drums? Drums! I’m sure she was good, but sure doesn’t fit the stereotype. Her voice was flowing gold, that’s for sure. A gifted person, gone too soon.

I’ve tried to learn about music. I read of so many musicians who are obvious artists, ordinary people in most respects but gifted in music in ways with which most of us find it hard to connect. One of those types helped correct me recently on a major conceptual error. In brief I had applied a dictum of Plato in a way, he explained, simply does not apply. Alas I can never retrieve all the mistaken pontifications, but I can go forward more humbly and that is a good thing.

As to rainy days and Mondays and the Carpenters, well, music is a serious thing, one of the most valuable realities of life. And today with taxes and all the other things, including rest, I remember the golden joy of hearing a choral performance yesterday of Mendelssohn’s “He, Watching Over Israel.” Salve for the soul.

And then last evening the late Dallas Willard spoke by the magic of recording into this very day as he reflected on that very text: “God does not doze off,” he said. And then, “We are always in His care, so it is safe to go to sleep.”

Rainy days, Mondays, music, joy exceeding wonder. God is in control and I am resting in Him.