The Horse is Dead... Stop Beating it!

Well, that's it.  The battle over "contemporary songs/choruses" vs  "hymns from the hymnbook" is over.  It's a sad thing that there is no willingness to make one little change.  I'm sad and discouraged.  I realized today that the more we go around and around about this, the further we get away from true worship.  I'm pretty sure this does not please the Lord.  It's simply not worth trying to introduce a new chorus if it takes our hearts and minds away from a focus on the Lord.  I'm tired and sad.
The ironic thing is, in our previous church there was (seemingly) an unwillingness to sing even one "old hymn".      This, along with some other things, led to a split and eventually the demise of the church.  I re-iterate what I said a few blog posts ago.... "Why can't we just get along?"  Why can't we live and worship together in harmony?
But there it is... we're done beating this horse.  It's dead.

In Remembrance

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew." - President George W. Bush. Rememering the heroes of 9-11.

It's been going on for a very long time and I don't know the answer to the problem of musical tastes when it comes to worship music.
You would think that in churches people would bend and flex.... listen to and learn from, give and take, yield from time to time in love out of the best interests of others.  I wish it were so.  It just never seems to be that way.  We used to be in a church where most of what we sang was contemporary choruses, accompanied by keyboard, guitar, drums and bass.  It was like pulling teeth to get them to sing a hymn every now and then.  Now we have the opposite problem.  We sing hymns 99% of the time accompanied by piano and occasionally a trumpet but every now and then I add a chorus from "the black song book"...  and then we get complaints about it.  Sigh...
What is the answer?  Somebody please tell me?  How can we "be in community" and show we love each other so that the world will know we belong to Christ if we are divided on what types of songs we sing to worship God?  How can we hope to attract unbelievers to Christ when we take our stand on things like the copyright date on a song?  How sad it must make the Lord to whom we gather to sing praises!
Please, can't we just get along?

There's Only One Possible Answer

I gave quizzes in each of my classes today (which means I now have quizzes to grade... all evening).  For some of the questions there are a few different possibilities of answers.  For others, there is only one possible answer.
Today went really well for me (maybe because it was a quiz day and it was quiet in my classroom for 20 minutes each period while they were taking their quiz?).  I had had a rough day on Tuesday... didn't feel prepared, didn't connect well with the students, felt just "out of it".  I re-evaluated what I did and didn't do.  I planned better for the next day.  It was okay... not spectacular, but okay.  I knew something needed to change.
Today, knowing my absolute weakness and inability to creatively teach and interact with the students, I got to school early enough to get down on my knees in my empty classroom and pray.  I prayed for help to teach them creatively, to connect with them, to really care about them as people and not just students.  I prayed for my students.  I told the Lord that I absolutely needed (and need) Him to do this job that He gave to me to do!
I think the Lord delights in answering prayers of dependence on Him.  He gave me some creative ideas, helped me to relax and enabled me to connect with my students as they came in.  I just talked with them about their day and their week.  It was good! I had fun and I think the kids did, too! I finished the day just so grateful for the Lord's enabling!

For me, this is the only possible answer to me having a good day!!