Happy Thursday!! Four more school days down and one to go before Thanksgiving vacation. We have stayed pretty busy all week and have three projects on our desks to complete before 2:55 tomorrow. I am really looking forward to a week off. I have several items on my agenda and sleeping past 6:00 am is one of them!! I have a paper to write, thank you notes to begin and family to enjoy. I hope also to get to a much need visit or two or three or more to the gym!! Special prayers are requested for Travis as he participates in the 3rd round of All-State Choir auditions tomorrow afternoon.

Psalm 95: 1 says, “Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” Bruce and I attended choir rehearsal this evening at church. We sing in the 11:00 Praise and Worship service at Advent Lutheran Church in Arlington. I really love singing with the praise team. The songs we sing always not only cause my voice to sing the right notes and rhythms, but cause my soul to sing and carry me to a place of worship. Tonight, during rehearsal, Addie, our director, told us which pieces we would be singing this coming Sunday. One of the selections is Breathe. I have always loved that song. It is one of those songs that takes me to a place of holiness and prayer. I envision myself kneeling before the throne of grace with Jesus sitting on the throne and I am singing this song to Him.

But now the song takes on a whole new meaning. For you see, it was the last song Casey ever sang and he sang it with Bruce on the Kairos Weekend the week before he died. How ironic is it that the last song that Casey would sing would be so perfect as the breath of life was slowly leaving him. He had been put on oxygen about a week before the Kairos weekend. He had taken his oxygen with him and used it when necessary.

Tonight, as the praise team began to sing the tears began to flow and choir began to shed some tears as well. I was pretty okay until these words were before me “Your Word spoken to me.” And then I remembered that God spoke to Casey. Casey heard words from God’s own voice. God spoke to our son. God told Casey He was coming for him soon and to not be afraid. God was Casey’s rock. And when God spoke to Casey, Casey had no fear.

Now, Casey knows nothing but joy! Casey’s joyful noise is a constant song of praise. One of the reasons I love singing in the praise team is because we sing joyful songs of praise, worship, and give thanks for our salvation and the love of Jesus for us displayed and enacted on the cross. Sometimes I sing “hurtin’” songs and sometimes songs of joy and I have finally figured out that they are all songs of praise. When I go before God with my heart all torn up or my heart exploding with joy then I have chosen God first and that is praise.

Maybe we should all sing songs of praise especially when it is hard. I do have a song that says, “…and when I suffer pain, help me that I don’t complain, but thank you Lord and praise you just the same. Praise Your holy name.” Praise is not always easy, but praise is always right. God blesses us when we praise Him in the hard times because He knows how hard it is for us to be thankful when things are a mess. When we trust Him with our sorrows and our joys then we are making a joyful noise to the One who loves us most.

As we approach this Thanksgiving week and nerves get frazzled with the details of getting dinner on the table and where we are going to sit for the football game and how full we feel after dinner swearing we will never eat again (when in just a little while we are nibbling at the table again!), let us find a moment to praise God for all of His blessings even when it is difficult. Make a joyful noise to the One who is the rock of our salvation.

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.