Grace Notes

A "grace note" is a music notation that the individual performer has to interpret for himself. Isn't that amazing? Here's the main melody (the composer seemed to say), and sort the rest of it out for yourself! It's like a parable for how to do life. There are general broad principles to follow, like the Ten Commandments, but the real fun comes in the grace notes, the extra bits that you learn to play by feel. The New Testament word is Charis. In modern Greek it's the word for birthday present! Imagine that. Something you just don't deserve at all, but which is rather nice and makes you smile inside. This is a prayer journal: that is to say, it's a daily-collected random assortment of prayers, notes from books that I'm reading and reflections on my daily reading of the Bible. Some of these pieces made it into sermons, or even into magazine articles. Most languished in online blogs, until summoned into service into this little book of grace-notes. Hope you hear the song.