Have you observed New Year “hurried” look in the faces of people you have seen in your day to day routine? Like everyone else I have been facing more than I can do. All of these new goals and “to dos” have surfaced that weren’t on my list just a week ago! Tonight I get to play the piano to kickoff a series called “Finding Peace in a Hurried World.” I am so looking forward to this because when I sit at the piano I have to be in the moment, receiving the gift of peace. This reminds me to seek this posture in the day to day. Even in the midst of hurry and much to do, God’s peace is there to be received in life’s moments.

I have been meditating on the psalmist’s words “…he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.” (Psalm 78:24-25). This reminds me to look back on 2010 with remembrance and gratitude…for provision, blessings, memories and even the struggles. In the first week of 2011 I have been coming to terms with surrendering the New Year. For me, this means deeper trust, child-like anticipation, sometimes running, sometimes walking, sometimes waiting, and replacing self-sufficiency with dependence on God.

Johann Sebastian Bach is my favorite composer. I played and memorized many of his inventions and preludes in high school. I didn’t know that one day I would arrange one of his most known melodies that is still performed at weddings around the world almost 300 years after its composition. It is known as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” This piece is the opening track on the “December Peace” album in tribute to Bach. One of his great quotes is “The aim and final end of all music should be unto the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”