This afternoon my family and I will be driving out to St. Louis to celebrate Thanksgiving at Erik and Joy's apartment. Its sort of a crazy day to drive all that way on one of the busiest driving days of the year- this morning NPR reported that an estimated 30 million motorists are expected to drive at least 50 miles for their Thanksgiving celebrations. Well, got to get back to work until 2pm. Have a grand Thanksgiving!
Last night I drove up the mountain to Covenant to attend John Wycoff's Senior Recital. He composed all the music, and it was incredible. I really enjoyed the variety in the styles of music- the first piece was a choral setting of a psalm (which Chorale sang at graduation this past spring). Next came his settings of songs from the Hobbit. His solo piano compositions included one that was set of variations (parodies?) of three familiar classical works, beginning with Beethoven's Fur Elise. He had a beautiful setting of the hymn, "O Love the Will Not Let Me Go", and as an encore he played variations on the college hymn, in a style that I'd describe as a cross between modern classical and jazz. The Lord has certainly given John an able and creative mind for music.
This past week I spent most of the time in Knoxville driving in rush hour traffic--morning, noon, and evening. Crazy? Perhaps, but its all in a day's work. Then engineering firm I work for is doing a traffic signal study for the city of Knoxville, along three arterial streets, and will be submitting an improved signal timing plan, and I got to drive the 'travel time and delay' study, so from 7 to 9, 11 to 1, and 4 to 6 I drove in the traffic, with a data recorder recording my travel speeds and stopped time at each intersection.
The bit of Knoxville I saw I liked--after work one evening I got together with a friend at a coffee shop in the old town, and another evening went to Volunteers for Christ (a campus ministry from a local church) with the same friend and her sister.
I found the 11th Street Cafe, in a little yellow Victorian house, right beside the UT campus and across from the Knoxville Art Museum. Two mornings during my break between the morning and noon rush hours I chilled there, reading and doing some writing.
Oh... and the traffic wasn't so bad after two years in Atlanta.
I'm just finishing off my cup of coffee, and decided to grab a few seconds to post these comments from John Piper's book, "Don't Waste Your Life", regarding "Making Much of Christ from 8 to 5." The six points below are his points from chapter 8 in the book (which I skipped ahead and read last night, and found to be a great encouragement to me).
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1. We can make much of God in our secular job through the fellowship that we enjoy with him throughout the day in all our work.
2. We make much of Christ in our secular work by the joyful, trusting, God-exalting design of our creativity and industry.
3. We make much of Christ in our secular work when it confirms and enhances the portrait of Christ's glory that people hear in the spoken Gospel.
4. We make much of Christ in our secular work by earning enough money to keep us from depending on others, while focusing on the helpfulness of our work rather than financial rewards.
5. We make much of Christ in our secular work by earning money with the desire to use our money to make others glad in God.
6. We make much of Christ in our secular work by treating the web of relationships it creates as a gift from God to be loved by sharing the Gospel and by practical deeds of help.
It seems autumn weather was way-laid, mugged, and gagged somewhere back in mid-October. I can't believe its November 3rd and the weather forcast says that we'll top 80F today... I miss a good chilly day with grey skies and hot cider.