27th January

A much better day today. And it made a change getting absolutely soaked from something other than tears. Yes I did my 3 mile trek through the woods which started off nice and sunny, and ended up turning to a reasonable rain shower and then hail. So my technical clothing had it’s first real test and I’m quite happy, basically warm and fairly dry on the inside, after the best part of an hour outdoors. And I chose to immerse myself in Clapton’s ‘From the Cradle’ album, an old favourite. At home I have a really poor quality and old VHS TV recording of the band rehearsal in the early nineties and would love to buy a digitised version but they don’t seem to exist. Anyway I always enjoy the blues as there’s something almost therapeutic about turning a negative reality into the positive of good music. So for example one track has the somewhat tragic lyrics – ‘I'm drifting and drifting. Just like a ship out on the sea. Well I ain't got nobody in this world to care for me.’ Now whilst I certainly don’t want to claim that statement as the whole truth about my life, nonetheless there are times when there is only one person I want to care for me… and she can’t anymore. Anyway I enjoy the blues. They always make me happy.

And here’s just a part of another amazing ‘blues’ song… am I the only one who smiles when the mighty King David describes himself as a worm, not a man? Look it up yourself to read the rest! 

Psalm 22:1-10
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be sung to the tune “Doe of the Dawn.”

  My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
     Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
  Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
     Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief.

  Yet you are holy,
     enthroned on the praises of Israel.
  Our ancestors trusted in you,
     and you rescued them.
  They cried out to you and were saved.
     They trusted in you and were never disgraced.

  But I am a worm and not a man.
     I am scorned and despised by all!
  Everyone who sees me mocks me.
     They sneer and shake their heads, saying,
  “Is this the one who relies on the LORD?
     Then let the LORD save him!
  If the LORD loves him so much,
     let the LORD rescue him!”

  Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb
     and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast.
  I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
     You have been my God from the moment I was born’ (NLT)