My January 2, 2013 Playlist
It happened like this: I woke up at my new normal wake-up time (5am) on January 2 ready to start my first workday of 2013 on the right foot. I read my morning devotions, spent a few minutes in prayer (too few, I admit), and replied to a couple of emails. Then I headed downstairs for breakfast and a shower. Everything was seemingly going very well, but there was this one problem: I couldn’t get Straight No Chaser’s The Christmas Can-Can out of my head. You see, my family’s annual Christmas get-together with some family friends had taken place on Sunday, so we had been playing Christmas music from my iPod most of the day. This lead to me humming Sara Groves’ Toy Packaging all day on Monday and Tuesday. One might think that The Christmas Can-Can was an improvement and one might be right, but this simply would not do for my internal playlist for the first workday of 2013. On top of that, I couldn’t endure another day of a one-song internal playlist. Not. At. All.
So, in between donning articles of clothing, I created a new playlist on my iPod for my morning commute. It featured a selection of mostly up-tempo songs, many secular, that I felt would get me in the right “take no prisoners” mood for the day. My goal: world domination. In one day. Sweet. To the end of this list, I appended various songs that I found along the way and thought, “Oh, that would help me get Christmas music out of my head as well.”
But God. I have a client who loves to repeat that phrase. But God. It’s found throughout scripture:
“You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to . . . save many people alive” (Gen. 50:20)
“Their beauty shall be consumed in the grave . . . . But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave” (Ps. 49:14-15)
“My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26)
Well, on January 2 I had a “but God” experience. I got in my car, hit play on my iPod, and hit the road. First up, We Are Young by Fun. Now, if you suddenly find yourself rolling on the floor laughing about the fact that We Are Young would be featured on the playlist previously described, enjoy. I will not apologize nor explain. I refuse. Ahem. What song I was expecting next I will not say, but it turns out that I had left Shuffle turned on after Sunday’s 12 hours of Christmas cheer. Consequently, my iPod pulled a song from near the end of the playlist, Ginny Owens’ I Am. Next, a TobyMac song. TobyMac certainly has a “take no prisoners” vibe – I mean, look at his name – but the particular song chosen was City On Our Knees. Then, another Ginny Owens song. After that, TobyMac’s Hold On. Then another TobyMac.
Somewhere in here, the tears started flowing. You see, I set out to conquer the day on my own. My playlist was all about embracing the moment, taking control, pushing ahead, and leaving everyone else in the dust. But God. He used my iPod’s Shuffle technology to send me a better message for the day. Embrace the moment, yes, but with a different purpose in mind and following Someone Else’s beat. Thank you, Lord.
How about you? How has God used music (or other randomness) to correct your path?
