The Best Kind of Excitement

I have a friend from years back, Angie, who has come back into my life in the last year or two since I've been on Facebook, and we chat several times a week. We are sisters in Christ who have picked up our relationship where we left it as high school girls, watching Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies, and taken it to a much more mature level now that we are both wives and moms with real adult lives.

Tonight I saw that she was online around 7:30 or so this evening (yesterday now), the first time we were both online in several days. She suggested we could chat after her kids went to bed. For some reason I felt compelled to go to her house instead, so I invited myself over while her husband was working late, and we had a face-to-face chat instead of a Facebook chat, which was much better. (I did get approval to do this from both Angie and Hubby before I headed over there!)

It was pretty late when I left Angie's house, and I was listening to music on my iPod in Hubby's car as I drove home. His is the car with the auxiliary audio input jack. I am so jealous... Anyway, Hubby cranks up the volume pretty loud in his car, and I didn't touch any of the buttons or knobs, I just plugged in my iPod and pushed play on it, playing my music.

I am someone who believes that God is in the details. The shuffle playlist in my iPod is not beyond God's reach. He can orchestrate when certain songs will come up, and I believe He did that tonight.

The first one of note (no pun intended - REALLY!) was "Keep Me in Mind," by Dig Hay Zoose. I can't find any audio files of it online, sadly, but you can see the disc and all the tracks on it here. My husband has this CD, and it is one I have largely ignored, except for this song. It has a very laid back Latin guitar vibe, and the gist of the song is God singing to the listener that He'll be patiently waiting until the person decides to invite Him into his/her heart and life.

Keep me in mind, soon you will find

All is for naught, and I'll be waiting...

Keep me in mind, soon you will find

All is for naught, and I'll be waiting to sing with you... And kiss you

The song sounds like any old love song until you really hear the bridge:

And when you say it's OK,

I will come into your heart

And when you say it's OK,

I will come into your heart and we will never part

Anyway, it's so hard to get the feeling for just how fun that song is if all you can do is read the lyrics. Hubby says that this song by Dig Hay Zoose is nothing like their other stuff, and I probably wouldn't like much of their other offerings, so if you go looking for them online (like I just did), and you do run across an audio file here or there, you probably won't get a decent feeling for what this song is really like. It's so light and syncopated, and infectious. And I know God meant for me to hear it tonight.

So I mentioned a few posts back about feeling like I'm wandering in the desert. Sometimes we hit a dry spell and can't really feel God. I know He's all around, working in my life, but I just can't FEEL him... well, tonight in the car, God let me have one of those wonderful little touches from Him where he let me FEEL just how close He is.

A song or two later came "God Will Lift Up Your Head," by Jars of Clay.

Give to the wind your fear
Hope and be undismayed
God hears your sighs and counts your tears
God will lift up, God will lift up, lift up your head

God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
Lift up your head

Leave to His sovereign sway
To choose and to command
Then shall we wandering on His way
Know how wise and how strong
How wise and how strong

God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
Lift up your head

Through waves and clouds and storms, He gently clears the way
Wait because in His time, so shall this night
Soon end in joy, soon end in joy
Soon end in joy, soon end in joy

God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head
God will lift up your head

You've got to know that it was BLASTING in the car. I was overtaken by the song, by the words, by the strength of my God and how he let me FEEL Him. My hand (singular because I was driving) was up, and tears were streaming down my face. God does not owe me that kind of emotional connection to Him, but I am so very grateful that He did allow it in that moment.*

I may or may not be finished with this current desert, but at least I know for sure that I am not alone, wherever I am, and wherever I'm headed.

*Disclaimer: Relationships of any kind are not to be based on feelings. Feelings are fleeting, and just because you feel a thing, or experience an emotional response to something, does not make it real. Remaining faithful to God (or a marriage for that matter) despite feelings that would lead a person to the contrary is the definition of faithfulness and love. Love is a choice, not a feeling. This is probably a topic for a future post.