Wrinkled Music

The young man scuffed the toes of his laceless shoes. He stared at the twelve-inch squares of linoleum on the floor of the music department’s practice room.

“Yeah, I’m not what you’d call prepared for today’s lesson.”

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Skin Deep

I had something wrong in my body. Nobody knew exactly what it was or why it was causing these particular oddities to occur. Even after the routine test, examinations, lab work, surgical consults, we still had no conclusive evidence. Our next step was to surgically remove the suspected tissue for examination and testing. After the results from the surgery came back, there was still no conclusive answer to the cause of the problem.

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Under Watchful Eyes

Recently my husband, son and I were driving down a long country road to a conference, followed the entire time by a brown car. As we reached the outskirts of town, we decided to stop for gas. After filling up, we got back on the road but noticed police lights, sirens, and slow traffic up ahead. As we crept up to pass, we noticed the car that had followed us was in a head-on crash, and the driver was being placed on a stretcher. As we passed the scene we realized that it could have been us in the accident if we had not stopped for gas. 

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Mini-Me

Katy started the summer in no-man’s land. She was too old to stay in the children’s department of our church, but still feeling too young for the student ministries (ATTIC). No longer could she get by with answering “God” to Sunday School discussion questions. When we asked her to think and dig deep, she would say, “but I’m just a little girl.” We helped her realize she was allowed to have a thought in her head. No pat answers.

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Sour Grapes

“Are you enjoying those sour grapes?” my parents would rhetorically ask when I complained about something that hadn’t gone my way. I hated that remark, mainly because, rather than give credence to my whining, a spotlight was shown on my what about me attitude. As I read the last chapter of the book of Jonah and heard his complaining, I was reminded of the sound of my own youthful voice. And, I have to admit, it’s a voice I still use. How often do you or I claim unfairness when God blesses someone whom we feel isn’t deserving, or when God saves a disgraceful person in their eleventh hour, or chooses to deliver someone whom we believe should be punished? God feels compassion for people whom we have judged, and fortunately for us, God also overlooks our sour grapes.

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