The strength of a melody

       Music is powerful.  Nothing can transport me faster in time than listening to a song.  Music is so intertwined with our lives that a song brings a memory of people and experiences I have not thought of in years. 

    Yesterday, music was a time machine for me–almost a montage of pictures from the last ten years of life.  I was driving to Athens to meet my dear friends and listening to some songs.  I found myself weeping.  These songs were songs I have helped to lead in worship from the last five years with Jacob Winn.  These songs released tears that I have not cried sufficiently.  Jacob will no longer be at Fellowship past the new year.  He and Beth are dear friends of ours, yet  he has also touched me very much in his profession. 

       After my dad died five years ago, I wanted to try out for the worship team to honor a part of him and to also use a gift that I had not used for a long time.  Jacob was there fascilitating my try-out and there for the long haul as he helped me grow in skill and confidence as a worship leader.   Not only for me, but for many others, he has helped them grow as musicians and in confidence and excellence to lead well.  He has also ministered to me and countless others leading week in and week out at Crossroad and our Sunday services.

       The songs I listened to yesterday, simply took me back to think of all those times of preparation and leading.  We forget so easily–time marches on in a way that robs us of cherishing memories.  Weeks become months and years, but music can take us to specific times to remember.   I am so thankful for the season that God placed Jacob at Fellowship Church–my tears are not finished in honoring Him.

        On the way home, I found an old CD in the car of Refuge.  Refuge was a service in Nashville that Greg spoke for in the first years of our marriage.  Dave Hunt led worship, and they so enjoyed working together.  These songs swept me back to the nights I would be there to worship at Refuge.  Refuge is where Greg really morphed into the teacher he is today–teaching verse by verse.  It is also the place where a passion to teach the word to college students was birthed.  Without Refuge, there would have been no Crossroad.  Amazing memories!

       There were other songs on that CD of Refuge songs that transported me back to summers of camps where I traveled with Greg to Student Life and other camps across the country. (He traveled full time in our first two years of marriage).  I smiled as I thought of the rich array of opportunities afforded us in our marriage to travel and minister together.  We will be two months shy of ten years of marriage when little baby Pinkner is born, but we have not been barren in that time. 

       Yesterday Patti and Leah (who both birthed a church ministry to college students in us), Student life staffs, Justin and Nick (who helped at the beginning of Crossroad), Refuge bands and greeters, Crossroad bands and greeters, Bible study girls, and countless college students from Crossroad floated through my memory.  Thanks be to God for these gifts.  We are afforded sometimes brief but rich seasons with people.  In those memories, I am reminded to be thankful and look for those opportunities in the now.  I am also reminded that for eternity the whole montage of people who know Christ will be together–all those rich relationships and conversations and worship in one place for one purpose. 

        I am so thankful for music and for specific people in my life that are a part of our tapestry of life and ministry.