God: Composer, Conductor, Arranger of the music of my life

To begin my prayer time this morning, I turned on the computer. Now that is always a dangerous thing--distractions are manifold! But I have a list of prayer concerns in a folder on my desktop, so I go through that list. When I come to Ben's name, "point-click" and I have his prayer calendar. Cyberpraying! It is finally working for me. :)

Well, sort-of. This morning I got completely distracted by Ben's calendar. I've been praying for North Korea, and quite frankly, I am somewhat of an ignoramus about the history of North Korea. So essentially I have been praying for the preparation of those who will be ready to minister to North Koreans when the DMZ line finally stops being the "wall." Spiritually speaking, I am not quite the ignoramus I am politically. Living on "the other side of the wall" in the former East enables me to pray with some fervor for the situation my cousin is in as he trains those who hope to someday go to North Korea. Fortunately, Ben is a lot more culturally sensitive than those who come who think "It's all one and the same" here in Berlin. It isn't.

So, dear Ben, I had a sudden urge to find out why I was praying about the birthday of some North Korean dead leader. Fifteen minutes later, or was it 45 minutes (?) click, click, click, I was on a website that offered a free download of a modern composition to the text of (as far as we know) the only song written by my Great-grandfather, the esteemed R.A. Torrey. As soon as Eric, the composer, sends his permission, I'll insert that link here (stay tuned, pun intended).

Then I went on Eric's blog to find out who this guy was whose email address lists him as my GGF's fan, and whose current reading is one of GGF's books. That fascinated me, since I am also in the middle of a reread of How to Pray by GGF. Turns out that GGF's fan Eric lives in Chicago. My sister lives in Chicago, Wheaton to be precise. She and her husband own the family home of RAT’s wife, affectionately known to the family as "Mother Clara." Jan had lived there as a young girl, when my mother stayed there to fufill a promise to take care of Great-Grandmother. Jan has wonderful memories of GGM and the house. I have none of GGM, since GGF and GGM both died long before I was a gleam in my father's eye. But I do have happy memories of the house, one of my favorites being that of finding said house by going to the library to figure out where my sister lived . . . for that story, you'll have to check HER blog.

I know, I've digressed terribly. Now you know why my prayer time sometimes takes so long. I end up praying for one thing, and end up somewhere in Africa. Africa? Tim? Raising Support? Mumble, needs money, mumble, living with goats, mumble, did I say goats? mumble, allergies, mumble. You get the picture. If nothing else, God is entertained. And amazingly, He listens. And even more amazing. He works.

Eric had a quote on his blog about somehow listening to Bach meant you have to acknowledge that there is a God. I fully agree. Just the other day I mentioned to Liz, a friend staying here, that rather than the onus being on us to explain how there could be a God when there is so much suffering, I'd once like to see an atheist explain the love I have for Tim or the kids, why I long for justice, and why I long for passion and romance in my life. (Well, I might not have said it quite that well to Liz, but in thinking about it, don't you agree?) In thinking about Bach, I think of God's orchestrating hand in my life and in the lives of my family. When my sister moved to Chicago, GGM's home was for sale from the people who had bought it from my great-grandmother Clara. Like Bach’s music, you have to have a lot more faith to believe in this being totally random than in simply believing in God as Orchestrater of these kinds of details.

I then began thinking about Torrey orchestrations in my life. When Tim's boss here began looking for ways his future team could come alongside German Christians in the city to help them fulfill their vision of what God wants to do here, all roads seemed to lead to one visionary, the pastor of the Luke Church. He and that pastor formed a partnership, and later Tim and I met that pastor. At the time, I saw a connection between my father's prayers for revival, and my desire to participate in revival here in Germany, the burden most on all of our hearts then and now. One day I got a call from my friend Tammie, who was reading the history of the denomination we are partnering with. As I write this, Tim is packing to go to their "General Assembly." Tammie eagerly read to me from the chapter in the history with "R.A. Torrey" in the title. Yes, the founder of the denomination to which the Luke Church belongs was Jonathan Paul, who was part of the German team involved in R.A. Torrey’s revivals here in Germany. My GGF is part of the history of the church God chose for our team to work and worship with very closely.

Crescendo: I have a picture of my great-grandfather and my grandfather as a young man, standing in front of the Berlin Victory Tower, where I gathered with thousands of other Christians about 90 years later, praising Jesus in worship for the Jesus Day. A few months prior to that event, I stumbled on the picture. I believe God wanted me to see the connection, that I had spiritual roots here in Germany, and that He puts those kinds of events together to show us the degree to which He is conducting the music of our lives.

One more fugue: A few years ago, I made a date with the Seniors of the Luke Church, to talk about our ministry and enlist their prayers. They have coffee and awesome cake and sing, and then I was the “special” for the day. Everything is in German, of course. The use an old hymnbook with the words printed, but no music. This time the melody struck me as anything but catchy, but the words were great. “I’d better pay close attention,” I thought. “This song is really difficult, and I’ve never heard it.” Near the end of the song, my eyes flitted down to the bottom of the page. The text was from “R.A. Torrey, translated by Jonathan Paul.”

Crescendo: The person who chose this song out of hundreds had no idea that the speaker that day was the songwriter’s great-granddaughter.
Double Forte: Only one song in that book was written by R.A. Torrey. As far as we know, he only wrote one song. (I know, I said that, but think of it as the refrain.)

D.S. al Coda: The music goes on and on and on . . . until eternity, when we will hear all the parts, in perfect harmony, in praise to the Composer, Conductor, and Arranger of the symphonies of our lives.