Tova

I fasted rock-n-roll this past lent. I had begun to notice how much I crank up the volume in my car while listening to music and began to consider the effects on my soul. I thought about how I was filling space that could be quiet and prayerful with very loud music and I thought about how times like this were becoming more and more frequent. Times of letting myself go to the music in my car and shutting out other possibilities of use with my commuting time. The drive would last a half hour and from the moment I left, the tunes would go on and when I pulled in the parking lot of my destination, I would turn the volume switch off. With this practice I began to notice, that I had completely shut out thinking time, praying time and that it truly was an escape. An escape on the way to a job where the stress level was high at the time. When our annual Lent season came at Trinity, there wasn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind of what needed to go: Rock-N-Roll... I remember the last song I listened to before the 40 days began..."I want to sing that Rock-N-Roll" by Gillian Welch. I then went to a bookstore and bought the Message on CD. I began listening to Matthew and different Epistles on the way to work. I began to quiet my soul and pray. This allowed God's peace to come into the place I was filling with music. Stepping out of my car as I arrived, with the Lent season underway, I noticed a significant difference in my being. I was practicing the presence of God instead of the presence of music and the musician's lyrics. I was allowing God's truth to fill my mind and give me hope. That was a great Lent. I wonder what this Lent holds. After last years Lent was up, I also noticed how my soul never went back to that full-fledged "giving-over" to the music. I didn't want to listen to music as much and that was refreshing. And when I did, I was enjoying it in a way where for those moments of listening it was perfectly delightful and not crowded out with a on-going, loud, escape-motivated practicing the presence of music idolatry.