Today is Cinco de Mayo! While we’ve enjoyed a handful of days that feel like they hint at the coming of summer, we’ve had quite a few more that seem to be holding us in spring, maintaining our “April Showers,” or even dragging us back to winter. There are days like Tuesday when it seems like the weather has a vendetta against us as the rain becomes torrential and the tornado warnings flash on our phones. On days like today, there is a nip in the air I usually associate with fall, but I’d rather look forward to the summer when I can reliably keep my shoes off and my shorts on and spend most of my time outside in my garden or working on my house.
I’ve experienced a lot of similar “seasonal” changes in my life recently. In 2019, I turned 40. In 2020, along with the rest of the world, I experienced a global pandemic, which allowed me to somewhat ignore my quickly graying hair and beard (if you haven’t noticed, thank “Just for Men” and my nephew for confusing me with my dad too many times on Zoom). This year, I went on blood pressure medication. I finally caught COVID myself, had my first colonoscopy, and have a CT scan to measure calcium buildup in my arteries because of my high cholesterol and family history of heart disease. I understand why they say 40 is “over the hill.” Sometimes it seems like it is really all downhill from here.
But I don’t think it is. I’m older, but I’m also a lot more settled into who I am. I have a much more clear sense of what is important and what isn’t, and because of that, I enjoy a lot more of my life than I did when I was younger and trying to figure myself out.
Over the past several months, I’ve been leading the Women at the Well through a series of Psalms and how they relate to the hymns and songs we sing in church. During most of our time together, I’ve used the Psalms and hymns that relate to the season we’ve been celebrating in the church year. In Advent, we patiently waited for the coming of Jesus, praying from Psalm 80, “Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.”
At Christmas, we celebrated Jesus’ birth by proclaiming Psalm 96, “Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.”
During the season after Christmas, Epiphany, we took time to rest and renew ourselves with Psalm 29, “The Lord shall give strength to his people; the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.” As we looked toward the crucifixion during Lent, we took comfort in Psalm 27, “Though an army should encamp against me, yet my heart shall not be afraid.”
As the seasonal changes in weather, the Psalms take us on a journey that can mirror our personal experiences. Written from thousands of years of relationship with God, and sometimes from a terrible and dark place, they still paint a picture of a people who know who they are and to whom they belong.
The Women at the Well Psalms and Hymns program is over, but if you’d like to take a journey with the Psalms, you can find the videos of the sessions on our Facebook page. You can also read them directly from the Bible, or you can go to www.lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu each week to see what the Psalm for the week is so you can take a journey through our church year along with us.
Yours in Christ,
John Johns, Music Director