Prayer Through Music

I’ve been quite homesick lately, for reasons I can’t even explain.  Part of me just aches to be home with my family in the beautiful Colorado.  However, I know that if I were there I would miss being here.  No matter where I go, I’m always be missing something or someone.

That’s just how life goes. 

Yesterday morning I was definitely in one of those moods and my friend Sam suggested that I go back to my room and play my guitar, which is exactly what I ended up doing for about an hour and a half.      Technically, I shouldn’t have been playing my guitar before 10am, since it's during quiet hours, but I couldn’t help myself and I figured most people were probably in class anyway.

I took me a few minutes to tune my seldom-used guitar and find the chords for songs online but, once I did, I didn’t stop playing until I had to go to Human Biology.  I ended up playing In Your Presence by Jeremy Camp over numerous times, amongst other worship songs.  

I love it when chord progressions become addicting.

Sitting down to play my guitar and worship the Lord on my own was the best decision I made all day.  Music is powerful worship, and also extremely beneficial during prayer.  I find that it is often easier for me to sing my prayers into lyrics than it is for me to journal or pray them silently.

I like to verbally set it on the table and say, God, here’s what’s up… 

Then I let my heart cry through the music. 

If it's Beating, I'm Breathing

I am not oriented toward the world of science at all.  My ability to regurgitate the information and facts I learn is an extremely difficult task for me.  I didn’t do very well on my first Psychology and Biology tests. (At least, not as well as I would have liked to do.)

It’s hard for me to focus on what is being taught and said, especially when it’s early in the morning.  Coffee doesn’t help at all, and I never get to bed as early as I want to.  Which means a lecture has to be sufficiently interesting for me to actually get anything out of it.

I’m a note taker no matter what.  Yesterday I was a vigorous note taker during Biology.

I was fascinated.  Absolutely fascinated.

My professor gave a lecture on the heart, and I was mentally present for an entire hour and twenty minutes.  I couldn’t believe that something the size of my fist could be so strong and enduring. 

To demonstrate, the professor had us open and close our hands to simulate the heart taking blood in and pushing it out.  Then he asked, “How long do you think you can do that?”

Most of us lasted 15 seconds until we could feel the burn in our forearms. 

There are so many things that impact the beating of our heart.  So many things have to happen in order for it to work right.  And somehow all of them do, for 24 hours every day. 

Blood receives oxygen in the lungs, flows through the heart, and flows to the rest of the body through arteries and veins and then capillaries.  Did you know working out too much is just as bad for your heart as being a couch potato and eating junk food all day? 

I was suddenly extremely in tune with the fact that my heart was beating.  I could feel it in my chest, in my neck, in my legs and my hands. I understood how it was working.  I was thrilled to be learning about something vital to my existence.  I now knew that the beating of my heart was due to the opening and closing of the semilunar valves.  (I feel like a bit of a nerd saying that.)

I was so excited I had learned about the heart I could have given an entire lecture on it during lunch.  However, I’m not sure my friends would have been as thrilled to hear about it as I was. 

I do have one more question about the heart though.

Who came up with this? à

It doesn't look anything like that.