Clear

Ann picks out our songs.

Exceedingly well, I must say.

For example, this weekend we sang Nothing Between in worship. I’m pretty sure I might have heard it somewhere once upon a time. Maybe I even sang it before. After all, it’s been around since 1906.

But at Saturday evening’s worship service (and thank you, Drake, for helping serve Holy Communion!) it triggered what Francine Rivers said in an interview I read this week —

“We tend to frame addiction as a substance abuse,

but most anything that consumes our attention and energy

or serves as an escape can be an addiction.”

(Christianity Today, May 2016, p. 80)

Nothing Between includes these lyrics —

“Habits of life,

though harmless they seem,

must not my heart from (Christ) ever sever.”

Join the rest of us in what Twelve Step people will recognize as a form of “a searching an fearless moral inventory.”  Before your day is over, sit down  with pen and paper, old-school style. Prayerfully examine your own life, using two things as your binocular lenses:

+this song’s well-worded way of saying

“Habits of life, though harmless they seem“

and

+ Francine’s understanding that

“most anything that consumes our attention

and energy or serves as as escape” can be an “addiction”

So:

What takes up your time?

That is, where and when and how do you spend your financial, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual resources?

Serious stuff.

The goal is found in the chorus of Ann’s song —

“Nothing between my soul and my Savior,

so that his blessed face may be seen;

Nothing preventing the least of his favor;

Keep the way clear!

Let nothing between.”

What changes do you need to make?