This has turned out to be one of the most spiritually rich and refreshing Sundays I've enjoyed in several years. Church this morning was wonderful. Our pulpit supply was a young minister from the cities, in his second year as pastor of a new work, Mission OPC. His message on Psalm 78, believing, remembering, and obeying and teaching our children to do the same, was one of the greatest sermons I've heard this year. Sunday school, from the Heidelberg Catechism on salvation and the sacraments, was nourishing and refreshing and sweet fellowship with the small group in attendance. The Lord's Supper was also a blessing and the whole worship service, down to the benediction, was rich and lovely and I believe pleasing to God. I played for the service and had the strongest sense and peace that my music was a devotional expression pleasing to God than I have had maybe this whole year.

Now this afternoon I'm settling down to listen to a sermon or two while I work on decorations for Boe Tunnel (more on that later!). Hopefully I'll get a nap and then tonight before Bible study is a Vespers concert presented by the largest choir on campus. It was one of the highlights of last year.

This week I've enjoyed Chris Rice's new album, Peace Like A River: The Hymns Project, especially his settings of Rock of Ages and Come, Thou Fount. He sings an unfamiliar verse from Come, Thou Fount, that has been in my head almost constantly the past couple days:

O, that day when, freed from sinning,
I will see thy lovely face.
Clothed then in blood-washed linen,
How I'll sing thy sovereign grace.
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away!
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

This week has not been the happiest or most restful either physically or spiritually for me and I needed today's refreshment so much. I slept terribly all week. I pulled a muscle in my neck on Thursday morning and tripped and fell down three steps that night. I was sick on Wednesday. Yesterday as I stopped for devotions over a late lunch after practicing I thought about how easy it is to get busy with a week and fail to take time and thought to wrestle with God for his blessing--to really, truly commune with Him. I felt his presence then as I hadn't all week and then today has been more of the same. I thought yesterday about the supernatural power of God which David speaks of in Psalm 18, a war song in many ways: "By my God I can leap over a wall." I don't ask God for this enough and such strength doesn't characterize my life. And yet James says when we ask He gives.

I am not (have not been, I should say) excited about this upcoming week. But after today I feel eager to commit it to God and ask His grace and strength and presence, not just that I would commune with Him, but that He would give me what it takes to triumph in this week in His strength. I don't have the strength right now. I'm incredibly tired and beginning to wear down because of very poor sleep this week. But this week is going to be intense. But instead of dreading it I'm asking the Lord to make it my best week yet (and to keep me from falling down anymore stairs). I hope to labor, to "spend and be spent," to work and strive to His honor and expect Him to give me what I need. Not that I shouldn't take time to rest, but this week I feel He is calling me to battle. And knowing Sunday comes at the end makes such a battle-call not so daunting. Or, as Chris Rice is singing at the moment: "Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow."

Here's what my week is going to look like. You can get a picture of the madness I'm involved in on a daily basis all under the name of Being a St. Olaf Student. And this doesn't include readings and listening assignments for history, instrumentation, and woodwinds.

So, a week in the life...

Monday

6:00a practice
8a breakfast and devotions
8:30a format history topic proposal
9:00a ear training class
10a chapel
10:30a lunch
11a finish history topic proposal and brass scoring project
11:50a woodwinds, history, instrumentation, back to back; projects due in two of them
3:30 meeting and hopefully time to get to the gym
5:30 dinner with Tasha
6:30 practice and homework
7:30 band concert
9:30 rehearsal

Tuesday

9:30a theory class
11a "tabling" outside the caf, advertising a lecture
12:30 practice
3:10 choir
4:30 dinner
5:30 practice and dress for concert
6:30 concert call
7:00 advanced conducting lab choir recital (I'm singing in one 15-minute set and playing a very difficult organ accompaniment in another.)

Wednesday

7a practice
8a breakfast and devotions
9a ear training class
10a chapel
10:30a lunch and homework
11:50a woodwinds, history, instrumentation
3:10 choir
4:30 inquire about driver training for school vehicles, dinner
5 practice and homework
7:00 host L'Abri lecture

Thursday

6:30a practice
8a organ lesson
9:30a theory class: assignment due
11a chapel
11:30a concert
12:30a lunch
1:00p homework and A NAP, I HOPE!!!
3:45 choir
4:45 dinner with the choir
5:30 study and rest and prepare for recital
8:15 student recital performance of Bach's 1st trio sonata, movt II and III
9:30 Bible study

Friday

7a study for two tests I haven't had time to look at yet because of the recital
9:30a ear training quiz
10a chapel
10:30a lunch and cram for tests
11:50a performance and written test on the clarinet
12:55 Renaissance era listening quiz (more like a scary test than a quiz)
2:00 instrumentation
3:15 chiropractor
4:00 hopefully I'll make it to the gym, followed by a movie and dinner with Maddy. (I take Friday nights off so I can throw myself into studies refreshed on Saturdays.)

Saturday

several hours of practice
several hours of music history, including work on my semester project
several hours of cramming for Monday's ear training proficiency test and Wednesday's instrumetation midterm exam

Sunday

Ahh.....

So now you know. How I wound up with exams coming up in ALL of my classes at the same time and right after a week of two performances I will never know. My schedule will get even busier the following week when Christmas Fest rehearsals start, but those rehearsals are one of my favorite things about St. Olaf and hopefully the exams will die down for awhile after next week.

Pray I will honor God this week and that He'll give me physical strength to make it through all of this. Partly I need to be able to move quickly to fit everything in, so pray for a quickly completed recovery from my fall, which is still making me pretty slow.