It's hard to read when there's background music playing in your head.

(From January 7, 2012)

This morning I’m wandering around in Bible.com, looking for a passage about encouragement – needing a boost to adjust my attitude – about lots of things. After reading several short passages, I settle into first Samuel and read a story about David rescuing the captured wives and children of Israel and dividing the spoils of the battle among those who were brave enough to fight. Interesting, make...s me think of the battle scenes in the Gabaldon book I’m rereading (Outlander), but not exactly what I’m looking for. So I keep looking. Wander over to Isaiah 41. Good Stuff. Isaiah 43. Also good. Then, I find what I need this morning. Isaiah 40. I know I’ve hit the sweet spot when the music starts in my head and distracts my reading to the point of – well, distraction. I’m barely in, at verse 3, when I hear the voice of John the Baptist, calling to me from Godspell – you know the song – that pure vocal, that amazing opening call to us – PRE-E-E-PARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD….! Then, in the very next verse, Handel grabbed my head and I heard EVERY VA-ALLEY… and the song changed again, in verse 5, to a raucous AND THE GLORY, THE GLORY OF THE LORD …. SHALL BE RE-E-E-VE-E-E-E-EA-LED… And the running passages start tripping through my little attention deficit brain like background music. This goes on, and I finally make it to the end of the chapter. At verse 31, my head does a weird little Google-Earth flyover, carried on the eagle’s wings, to sing with the choir at Sumatanga. Hmmm – that was 1995 at MAW, I think. I’m encouraged, now.