A February Day in Chicago and Amy Grant

Here I am at work but all I can do is look out my window and see the gray sky. I guess I'll take lunch now.

It snowed again last night... but at least it was only an inch this time. The sky is now so gray. I do not anticipate going outside to my car either. I can tell it will be cold.

I am trying to decide what to do tonight. I'm thinking I should go to church because the midweek services are the best at Willow Creek. They are also starting a new series which should be good. I just don't want to drive out there. I'm cold and tired. I know I should though because everytime you feel like you don't want to go to church God has something BIG in store for you. Like at Christmas I did not want to go to the Christmas service because I had so much to do with packing to go home and such. I decided I was going to call my 80 year old bar friend, Bert, and tell him I can't go. I didn't though. I met him at my usual bar, he bought me a Jack and Coke and he, my roommate and I all went to church. I was later so happy I had taken him with me. He was thrilled to meet my friends, he was amazed that we had to park in a remote parking lot and take a bus to get to the church, and he was overwhelmed to see the auditorium that holds 7500 people (we've built a new auditorium since you were there on the B & C trip) . The message was good too but the best part was Willow Creek's tradition of telling the people with you how much you love them during the singing of "Silent Night".

Today, however, I am matching the weather and am in a rather blah mood. I decided that listening to country is not what I should do today. Yes I said country. I've been listening to it a lot lately, mostly because it makes for good karaoke and since I go out to sing karaoke at least 3 nights a week it is good to have more than Madonna to sing. That can be another entry. The point is, I decided not to listen to country (why did I tell Diana I would learn "Bring on the Rain" anyway?) and listen to my trusty Amy Grant. Yes, I said Amy Grant.

Everytime I am in the kind of mood where I feel a little distant from God and just want to cry all day long I find Amy Grant's "Never Alone" (1980) to be very comforting. It's strange the music that can make a person feel better. This album is a bit morbid because it talks a lot about our mortality and pain and lonliness but offers so much hope at the same time by saying she can walk away with God or all she ever has to be is what God made her to be or learning that by letting go of something desired brought freedom or saying not to walk to middle and just make up your mind about what you believe. She was only 20 when she recorded it. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, it's a good album. If you ever see it somewhere (and do not already have it) I suggest picking it up.