The Spirit of God....

Ever since I have taken to the road the hymns have taken to a new meaning. Nothing like a calm drive from 10 to 12 hours driving around this country (yes I said country) from city to city is much nicer when there is a hymn in the cabin. It allows for me to get back in touch with the basics, you know faith, repentance etc. and separate myself from the grind that can happen from day to day driving.

I have been a driver for over five years now and just recently rediscovered the hymns. Oh sure music and talk shows had a place but nothing really connects people to a more centered and relaxed feeling then the songs of praise. Some would ask about the great songs of the more modern times like the work of Michael W. Smith or  Janice Kapp Perry but there is nothing like getting back to what carried the saints across the plains of the wild west.

I was recently reflecting on their exodus and I thought that perhaps our own will be just as wild when the Savior comes only there will be one big difference, we have become complacent. When the end comes, I wonder what will become of the civility of man; will we attack ourselves for food and shelter, revert to something less then the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air? I fear that no preparedness will ever prepare man for what is to come. To what level with the hymns be to men and women when the wolves and men come for them. Will such hymns like Lead Kindly Light by John H. Newman have the same significance as it did two hundred years ago? I know for some the song is timeless and its meaning is eternal like the scriptures.

When the Saints came across the plains they had only the songs they had grown up with and the hymns that Sister Smith was instructed to put together. Not that many songs but it seems that with their eager spirits, tenacity and perseverance, they made it work. I have never pushed a cart out of the mud or traveled by foot thousands of miles but I have had a sliver of the faith that they have had as I have pushed a car our a snow bank and traveled crossed the country several times (at least a dozen).  I do not know what strength they had in the past but I do know of the songs. I listened to them on my radio and MP3 player. The world has changed a lot.

I do not boost that I am better or faster than those before me and I hope that they see that I am in my own way attempting to use their example in my life. It’s difficult to be sure if I am getting the message right but time will tell.

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