These are all affiliate marketing links. I receive a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase. This costs you nothing and goes a long way to supporting this channel and website.
Here are some of my favorite Hymnals:
Presbyterian 1955 Hymnbook: http://amzn.to/2zSRdpL
Episcopal 1940 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2DEOl1H
Broadman 1940 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2C1WuwK
Methodist 1939 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2CfJ1Wq
Pilgrim 1935 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2DDvbJC
Now Sings My Soul, New Songs for the Lord by: Linda Bonney Olin: http://amzn.to/2DQ6gUy
Choice Hymns of the Faith 1945 http://amzn.to/2Dx97nA
Book of Psalms for Singing https://amzn.to/2ygM00b (1912 Psalter is unavailable)
Hymns Ancient and Modern https://amzn.to/3dfaHIY
Lutheran 1941 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2zUmYi2
Here are my new projects:
Trinity Hymnal 1960 https://amzn.to/3ZU7esg
Lutheran 1909 Hymnal https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25240909M/Evangelical_Lutheran_hymn-book
J S Bach Riemenschneider 371 Harmonized Chorales http://amzn.to/2DSy5f9
References:
Dictionary of Hymnology: http://amzn.to/2BxPabk
American Hymns Old and New https://amzn.to/3fqkkVU
Between Christmas and New Years, my wife, Diane, and my son Kaleb took a road trip to Houston to visit my son and very pregnant Daughter-in-law who is due yesterday! We usually plan on helping with some project around their home and this time was no different. After completing the major projects we were looking forward to a bit of R&R…but as the old Yiddish saying goes: Man plans and God laughs! Little did I know about the uproarious laughter which was coming my way. No sooner had we settled into our day of rest when I hear frantic knocking on a door with no street access. I open the door to find a small woman frantically telling us the fence was on fire! (She and her husband had broken through the fence and were already putting water on the fire.) Kyle and I ran out and started to put it out just as it was really starting to take off. A couple more minutes it would have been beyond our ability to put it out I am sure.
So, my son, whom I love, spent a hmmm…pleasant… 24 hours clearing out the old and building a new fence. I couldn’t imagine a better time together! I did learn one amazing lesson. Those teachers out there understand that sometimes when we tell a student to do X, they often do X-2. So, we tell them X+2 hoping for X. Kyle had started working with me in my piano shop when he was about eight years old. As he took charge of this project I watched him do a lot of X+2’s. He had actually listened to me! Did I tell him he only really needed to X? Not a chance! But that was not all. He showed me things I did not know. The student had become the teacher and the teacher became a student. The circle was complete. I had to turn away from him for a few moments as I reacquired my composure.
The day came to leave still without our first grand baby. My car had had an occasional odd noise, but we could not figure out what it was since it was so intermittent. So, we, no really I, had decided to just get going and hope for the best. We managed to get just inside of Louisianan on Interstate 10 before I knew my decision was a bit…foolish. I had no doubts now, the other rear bearing had decided now was the time to depart this world. We carefully limped to Jennings, LA on New Year’s Day, found a hotel just off the highway and prepared for an extended stay. On Friday I crawled to the local Ford dealership. They were very surprised the wheel was still attached to the car! They said it could be as late as the middle of the next week before the parts would be in and they could fix it. I had expected this. I grabbed a rental and we decided to make the most of our time.
And that we did! We took a 1.5 hour fan boar ride. What fun to skim along the swamps of southern LA! We saw gators in their natural environment and plenty of other fowl. I even had a gator burger for lunch. The next day we got to pet a baby gator. We spent several days poking around that corner of LA which we have driven by many times, never once stopping. We spent time visiting with some local artisans and other natives. This area has not been inundated with f’r’nors yet so the local Cajun culture was on full display. The dealership came through for us and had us back on the road by Monday late afternoon.
While I don’t think there is any deep spiritual lesson in all of this, I still see the mighty hand of God through it all. Yes, it was an expensive problem and a very exhausting trip to say the least for this aging couple. But out the hardship we experienced abounded blessings. One of the benefits of knowing God’s sovereignty is the freedom from worry you can experience. It doesn’t excuse you from action, Kyle and I still had to work fast to the put the fire out and had to work hard to quickly repair the damage. But it was from this experience I got to see my son in a new light. If the car had lasted just a few more miles we would have been stuck on a 20 mile bridge through the swamps of LA and our problems would have many geometrically worse. We were all saying that God must have wanted us here for a reason. I may never fully understand why, but I know I can trust the author of that Why!
