Contentment

4.7.2006

Diesel fuel permeated the air--not too thick to make you hold your breath but just enough to be noticable. Cool night air rode in through the window, cruizing down the dimmly lit streets. Exhausted. We always smelled of sweat and hard work. Silent and delighted, both. Always a calming hush after the games--driving home served as a cool-down, a time of respite. The rhythmic lull of the tires treading the street. Some slept, others thought. Some whispered quietly, some escaped in music. A long train of busses--endless it seemed. We had our "crap seat" full of hat boxes, instruments, and uniforms. They'd be distributed by the unfortunate soul sitting nearest it once the busses came to a hault. Arrival. Three hundred band students cram the doorways, busting through like water hemorrhaging a levee. The smell--musty and just like home. Four years I lived in this place. Lived with these people. Ate with these people. Worked with these people Cried with these people. Laughed with these people. The smell won't forsake me for a day. I know it all too well. ...Lines for uniform return. Piled in like cattle...sqeezed in like sardines. Watching our performace: some successes, some failures--all the more--a product of sweat, tears, laughter and determination. ...Yes, the flocking of band students and then the slow but steady clearance--in the end, nothing left but trash and forgotten items--almost as if a plague of locusts came through and destroyed everything, leaving before you realized they had come. Okay, maybe not to this degree. But there is some truth to the similie. Some hung around 'til the band directors locked up. Soon the parking lot emptied--no more tired students, no more tired parents. Rest at last. O the days of band...I do miss them at times. 'tis a season and experience. Ha, what endearing memories.

...Thinking tonight I realized that I am truly content with where God has me. Even though I daydream, I am pleased with what God does in my life each day. Sure, I can reminisce about the past, but in all honesty, I wouldn't want to go back. God's been teaching me contentment...in more ways than one....walking outside barefoot, having a picnic with some girls from my homegroup, driving in the night breeze, running into friends around campus, living with amazing women...I love it. This too is a season and I want to enjoy it while I'm in it--not just when I look back on it. Life-- I am lovin' it! [sure, hard times come, but the joy of the Lord is my strength! selah!]

Transformation...