Gospel Hour

Having a dog means that I don't sleep in unless I stayed up really late. Lucy wants to be up at 3:00 AM, 5:00 AM, 6:15 AM...and finally 6:30 when Mommy is finally willing to get up. So even though church starts at 11:30 for Mommy, we were up by 7:00 this morning. After taking the dog out, feeding the fish, making and eating breakfast, starting the dishwasher, getting one of my FFXI characters to the next level, ironing my clothes, showering, getting dressed, taking the dog out again (she went in her crate immediately upon coming back inside, so in order to avoid confusing her I closed the crate and went outside for a minute, then came back in and let her out - I want her to keep going in that crate when it's ordinarily time for Mommy to leave), I still had more than an hour before it was time for church. I am not usually a big fan of Sunday morning television, but I thought I'd see if anything worthwhile was on.

It turns out that one of the country music channels has the Gaither Gospel Hour on. It ends 30 minutes before church starts, so why not put it on? Basically they just show songs from their various Homecoming recordings. I am sure that some of the overdone hair (both men and women...I mean, is that really Jake Hess' hair? Looks like a rug to me...) and make-up is due to the era in which they were actually made (they're several years old, and I know that several of the people who appear have gone home by now). Underneath all that is false, however, there is a genuine love for singing praise to God. Everyone there, young, old, thin, not so thin, attractive, goofy looking...as long as they were alive they were singing. That is beautiful. It is encouraging to join in and sing, even if it's not my favorite kind of music. The substance matters. I'm going in a few minutes to sing songs of a very different style, but the spirit is the same. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!