h2odevos eots 120511 Harmony + Comfort

H2odeovos eots 120411 Harmony + Comfort

“It doesn’t really matter if it’s yours or if it’s mine

it’s the same amount distance one step at a time”

http://www.petermayer.com/songs/harmony

http://www.harmony.mn.us/

Friday night as the soloists and chorus sang,           

 we heard the words, “the crooked made straight, the rough made plain.” I thought of those parts and pieces of each one of us that are “crooked” and “rough.” You know those edges and sides of you that have scar tissue from being wounded or wounding others. It doesn’t take much for those hardened parts of our hearts and souls to be places of pain or spaces that attempt to wound others.

Art Garfunkel sang years ago in a song, “I bruise you,  you bruise me, we all bruise too easily.”  http://www.artgarfunkel.com/lyrics/alliknow.html

On this day, I always quote a spokesperson from years ago, (it’s a generational thing) a man by the name of John Cameron Swayze. He would advertise Timex watches.

Through some pretty crazy stunts he’d always say about the watch, “takes a licken, but keeps on ticking.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgsvnvf6UGA

Human beings are that way, too. There is an amazing reliance. We can “take a licken, but keep on ticking.”

At the same time, we are quite fragile. A particular look, a perceived slight, a cross word and our day is “ruined.” We bruise too easily! And we bruise others too easily as well.

And so it is with a very open heart that the words of the Isaiah 40 come into our lives this morning. It’s a counter balance. Historically, the words came to the children of Israel after they had lost everything, their country, their temple, their work, their loved ones.

These words come to us and mend our hearts, the “crooked made straight, the rough made plain.”

Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the LORD's hand

double for all her sins.

³A voice cries out:

"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

⁵Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together,

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

It is food, comfort food for the soul. Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD!

It’s what Peter is singing about in Harmony.

“It doesn’t really matter if it’s yours or if it’s mine

it’s the same amount distance one step at a time”

Blessings,

rtg