Blogging Is Fun and Nutritious Too - by Kelly Kuvakas

Kelly is in Vermont visiting our daughter, Ruth and her husband, Todd. Oh... have I mentioned our new granddaughter, Samantha?

After no exercise Thursday or Friday, I finally braved the cold for my walk this morning. Praise God! No biting winds, no burning nostrils. Only good clean air with slightly slippery sidewalks.

I listened to the same music I've been exercising to for close to a year now. I have so enjoyed 'Dismiss the Mystery' by Salvador. One would think listening to the same music over and over again would grow boring, but I find this music energizing. It is an old friend to me, welcome especially after several days apart.

Music flows through my head almost constantly. Phrases that echo my own heart's journey..."break me into a million pieces; make me whole again; shape me beyond all recognition; from the (wo)man I used to be; break me".

My newest musical friend is the album "Mysterious Things" by Evan Wickham. (I told you I'd have another Christmas gift suggestion to go with the pink boxer shorts.) I loved the song "Hallelujah Jesus" when I heard it on a Christian station on my way up to Vermont several trips ago. (We played the song for communion last week.) The whole album seems like family now.

Why do some songs resonate so deeply? I wonder if it isn't the outpouring of the psalmist speaking what my heart feels for God too. Perhaps even, the Spirit of Christ, living in me, responds to the truth. Certainly, songwriters can be led by the Holy Spirit to write songs of love and longing for the Lord. It is His spirit who initiates any love on our part...1 John 4:19 says "We love, because He first loved us." Perhaps this concept of recognition is the "deep calls to deep" referenced in Psalm 42. I love the way David longs to worship again with "the multitude".

My soul is not downcast right now. (How could it be? I'm holding/loving/kissing/crying over/praying over little Sami - yes, even changing poody diapers is great!) But, I do look forward to worshiping with you again next week. I'm praying for my church family, that God would continue to unite us and draw us ever deeper into worship. May He have full rights to cleanse us from our iniquities; may He cause our hearts to break over sin; may we long to worship and may we know truly what Love is.

Blessings from Vermont,
Kelly

Psalm 42 1As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. 5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God. My [c] soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" 10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.