Playlist by God. Really.

Long bike ride through the Greenbelt today, just ask my "sit bones." iPod in tow. For you purists, I KNOW you're not supposed to ride with ears plugged. Get over it. I was careful. One bad crash in a lifetime is enough. I needed thoughts other that the ones my own brain was generating so I could change my outlook on the day. On the way up, I listened to Pastor John's sermon from last week (6/15). Just like a spring vegetable soup with a sprig of fresh rosemary, it's always better the second time. He was talking to me. It was wrapping up; I was listening to the last 2 songs when I arrived at the Labyrinth in Cedar Falls. I love stopping there and prayerfully walking through the purposeful path of brick and rock, listening to the music. The pea gravel gets in my bike sandals, hurts like crazy, but I just try to look at it as the Lord's Pedicure. I love that path. There is no mystery, just like life, we know where it starts and where it will end and it is awesome. Powerful. Uplifting. In between is the winding path with twists and turns and going back and feeling like you're starting over, feeling like you've got the same rocks in your sandals. Yea, like life.

On the way home, my music was on "Shuffle." There was no random shuffle about it - it was God's playlist. Everything played in perfect order for my mood, from "A Mother's Prayer" to "Anyway" to "Million Pieces" to "Stand" to "Thank You" to "God Will Make a Way" to "Grace Changes Everything"....and when my mind started wandering a bit and I had this out-of-the blue crazy thought about maybe some day moving somewhere else, what song came on at precisely that time? None other than Bert and Ernie's "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon." I'm no doubt the only AARP member who has Bert and Ernie on their iPod.

"...I would miss all the places and people I love
so although I might like it for one afternoon
I don't want to live on the moon."
Then about living in the sea?
..."I might stay for a day there if I had my wish
But there's not much to do when your friends are all fish
And an oyster and clam aren't real family
So I don't want to live in the sea."

That was no shuffle, that was a Divine Playlist. I'm never surprised by these happenings anymore. To the contrary, I expect them. The only song that would have surprised me was "God Blessed the Broken Bra that Led Me Straight to Kohl's." Now that would have blown me away.

For the record, I looked at my speedometer at least 4 times going 11.1 mph (nasty headwind). I glanced down when I had gone 11.1 miles, and I was at the most deadly corner on my ride, waiting to cross Viking Road, when my ride time read 1:11:11. Now try and tell me that I didn't have Company, other than my better half. Wow, what a ride. God was shifting my gears today.

We came home, showered, and attended a celebration for a neighbor who has now completed 3 1/2 years of IV and oral chemotherapy for leukemia, including 40 spinal taps. Oh, and he graduated this year. Diploma didn't mean nearly as much as that last lab report.
Tea tonight: Republic of Tea Pink Grapefruit Green Tea "Sip for the Cure" - just for you, Sam