Hello Hatters,
During these Lenten Days before Easter, I am not giving up anything. In years past, I have done various fasts. I was not convicted to give up anything, but rather to lift up my praise daily in song and piano playing. Music is very important to my soul’s health. I live sweeter and more content when I spend time in the old hymns or the current contemporary Christian worship music.
I find the old hymns very poetic and rich in meaning. I long to walk well in my faith and music ministers to my journey. In the more recent worship music, I am more prone to dance with my heart where joy grows.
In the pages of my modern music, there are key changes, meaning taking repeated phrases and moving them up a pitch or so. It creates variations in a song that has been in the same key. There is one song in particular has a key change which brings the melody into more of my natural voice range. I enjoy that song very much.
This morning as I played and sang, I was able to see the connection of a difficult circumstance in the lives of my family as a key change. Circumstances have turned out differently than expected. They had a key change. It takes great resilience to shift from disappointment to a new plan. I am proud of their reframe and pray that the new path will bless them in ways that are tangible….yet I know that understanding may not come right now.
Often things happen, and we don’t see the workings of the Lord. In some cases, we may not have the ability to appreciate the benefit. I have one specific memory that was brought to me yesterday during a Bible study time. There is much talk in the book of John about pruning and how it is hard in the beginning, but later you can see the results of the growth that would not have been possible without the pruning.
I have always worked outside the home, even as a young mother when I wanted to be at home with my babies. It took two incomes to make ends meet. I searched high and low for care givers of my children. One year, my trusted home day care provider gave me notice of quitting the day care business. I had one week to make other arrangements.
My youngest child was about a year old and I held her in my rocker and wept tears of sadness and disbelief about the hard change. In my weeping, I cried out to my Lord, “Why, Lord?” Aren’t we always quick to ask that question? So many times, I’ve asked why and not received an answer.
However, I received a very specific answer to my question. Deep in my soul, a whisper came to me, “I want you to be close to your child, not your babysitter.” I cried even more. It was a pruning. It was in implication that I was not close to my child. It hurt my feelings, but as I settled, I realized I was given a gift. I had to do something different. I gave my notice at work and said I would stay as long as I needed to train a replacement.
My husband and I would have to figure out a way to make things work on his salary. The next day, I went to work and found that my boss offered me a way to work part time and spend more time with my children.
It was a key change. It was a place that was more in my range of voice, my calling, and my purpose. I accepted the chance to balance things with less hours and God made a way.
As a writer who wears many hats just like you, we are often redirected; it may be a pruning. It may hurt; it may sting; it may bite. When we slow long enough to evaluate what is happening, it is possible to see the opportunities of a different perspective. Today, I saw the connection to a musical key change. I have talked about reframing before but this morning’s time of worship has given me a new view of a key change.
My family is full of music lovers, whether we are car driving divas singing our heart out or performers in the shower where acoustics are great. When we are at concerts, we quickly glance at each other and do sign language for the letters K and then the C, for key change when we hear one. It is a thing.
Watch for your own key change, a chance to hear or see things differently.
MT Penny