Thanksgiving Meditation.

1 Peter 3:8.

Be harmonious.

This is one of the harder admonitions of Scripture-at least for HarleyDad. HarleyDad's experiences with church choirs were inharmonious to say the least. On one occasion many moons ago, a choir director came to HarleyYoungMan (I was not a Dad in those days) and suggested that perhaps my ministry was not involved with the Church Choir. It seems that the Choir Director expected the choir to sing in harmony. Without intent I was the discordant note.

My music career then moved from choir status to solo status-so low that others would not hear me. Later, I included that even the rocks and stones must praise Him so I got into rock music (Christian Rock). And then the Rolling Stones, who never gather any moss. Of course, there is also hard rock for "hard shell" Baptists. At any rate, after much listening, I could tell that the Stones were really not praising Him. So I dropped the Stones.

It seems that singing and being naturally harmonious both in life and in song, must have skipped my generation. My Father is a great singer (well not great, but pretty good). Often growing up he would lead music when the music leader was out. (I was never, I repeat NEVER at any time ever asked to do this by any one, and I mean NEVER in my whole life). Today, Dad is 85 and still sings in a senior choir and in a senior group called the "Good Old Boys" down in East Texas Promised Land.

My granddaughter Harbow, sings soprano in her school choir and is going to sing the Star Spangled Banner (that song that is so hard to sing) at some type of football game this next week.
(Jose, can you see?)

There is something wonderful about being in harmony. At least that grass looks pretty good from Discordant Land. There is something wonderful about making beautiful music together whether we are in a choir, a string quartet, or worshipping in church. There is a gestalt in it. When we are really good and our hearts are true, we forget about ourselves. Sometimes the sum of all the parts is more than just the parts themselves. The Angels join in the singing. We all kinda know when that happens, and if you have never felt that happen, you have missed something wonderful-like never having seen the Grand Canyon. Yeah, people can describe the Grand Canyon,---"It's this big hole in the ground that is like awesome and beautiful." Somehow the description does not quite do it justice!

It is good when God joins in praise and worship. It is good when the angels sing in harmony with us. Somehow everything is right in the universe and we finally are in harmony. There is music in the spheres-the music of the Universe. The divine hum of God humming as He crafted the world. Somehow all those Tibetan monks picked up that hummmmmmmmmmmm-and we pick it up when we smell fresh apple pie and go hummmmmmmmmm good! The monks go hummmmm-god!

So Scripture tells us to be harmonious. To get in the groove. We are to get in tune with the Bishop and Comforter of our souls. As others get tuned up to Him, we find that we are tuned up one to another as each of us faithfully tune ourselves to the Lover of Our Souls. When we are all together, all on the same note, all on the same page, we can make beautiful music in the universe. Our lives can resonate one to another.

It is interesting to me that we can find harmony without loosing our individually, at least not permanently. An orchestra is made up of widely disparate instruments and people- they can come into harmony with out loosing the identity of their instruments or of the players of the instruments. However, at some point the members of the orchestra, determine to lay down their will about how to do things and to take command from the orchestra leader. As we so determine in our own lives to lay aside our will, and to take command from the Bishop and Great Shepherd of our Souls, we will move toward the goal of "being harmonious." Interestingly, being harmonious is not a suggestion, but a command.

Let's get on with it.

HarleyDad