The Meaning Music Evokes take Three

"Music washes away the dust of everyday life" so wrote Berthold Auerbach...

Which by the way...Berthold might just be the coolest name I had never heard of before.

But I also want to add to Berthold that music has a way of helping us make sense of the dust in our lives.  Sometimes the muck and mud...the dust won't scatter so easily.  Sometimes the thick layer of the past doesn't even budge when the winds of change swirl in the room.  The dust of life can be stubborn and cling tightly.

Because maybe that dust is trying to tell us something.

You see if the goal is only to clear and clean our lives of dust, most of us will not pass - I am talking both literally about my living room AND metaphorically about my life.  There is dust on the shelves and on my soul.  But that dust...the remnants/remains of past might actually be important for this moment.  Sometimes what lingers and lays in our life is trying to tell/teach us something.

Maybe the goal is to eliminate all the dust...but to listen to it and pay attention to it.

But Berthold is right in that I think music can help us make sense of the dusty remains of yesterday.  Music can help us process pain...both physically/mentally/spiritually...and help us imagine new todays and tomorrows.

So here is a hymn that for me that sings out I am trying to say...

It is my heartfelt prayer that the music and thoughts this week have caused new ideas to stir within you.
It is my heartfelt prayer that considering the profound power of music this week has unclogged your ears to hear new music around/within you.
It is my deepest prayer this week has offered more than a trace of God's grace.