This is recital preparation week at Little Flock’s Academy of Arts.  Fifty plus students will perform during three separate recitals this weekend – on piano, guitar, flute, violin, percussion, and voice.  It is exciting for the students, highlighting what they have learned and how they have progressed in their musical education.

As the administrator of the academy, recitals are a busy time for me.  Having the tendency toward perfectionism, the smallest details become an accumulation of  many things on my to-do list. 

My co-workers know I have the “chicken with its head cut off” syndrome during this franctic-paced time.  It is just the nature of recitals that much of the activity can only be accomplished in the few days leading up to the event.

My mind spins with things to do, my written list is long, my check-off sheet is ever before me.   Can we say “stressful?”  It is not unusual for me to work long hours this week to finalize the arrangements.   

What is unusual is that Tuesday morning I arose from my sleepy bed with a song humming in my brain.   The song was “Lord Most High.”  The words go like this:

From the ends of the earth, From the depth of the sea,

From the height of the heaven Your name we praise!

From the hearts of the weak, From the shouts of the strong,

From the lips of all people, This song we raise, Lord.                            

Throughout the endless ages

You will be crowned with praises, Lord Most High!

Exalted in every nation, Sovereign of all creation, Lord Most High!

Be magnified!

This song would not let me go.  It swirled in my mind while I showered and dressed.  It crooned to me as I drove to work.  It greeted me at my office desk, and as I washed the coffee pot for a fresh brew.

It was as if the Holy Spirit Who lives within my humble being was singing to me, encouraging me to join in the praises to the Lord Most High.

I thought of Romans 8:26:

“In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should,  but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.”  (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Scripture says my Father knows what I need before I ask.  He knew I needed to focus on worship rather than worry, to delight in Him rather than fret over details.  The Spirit’s groanings turned out to be singing.

Grace never ceases to amaze me, that God loves me this much.  He cares about the dailiness of my life and my stress level.  He sings to calm my frazzled nerves, and He invites me to join in the chorus.

“He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, 
  He will rejoice over you with singing.”  (Zephaniah 3:17)