Painting with PETRA

After another intense week at the office, I found myself struggling to get moving this morning. As I have aged, I have found it difficult to sleep in for any good length of time. I'm usually awake by 7, and try in vain to rest in bed until 8, when I finally give up and head out to the kitchen to make some coffee. With all of the unfinished projects and weekly maintenance demands placed upon me by this house, summer weekends are rarely restful. But that's not all bad, because it keeps me active and not locked into my computer so much.

The past several months, I have been steadily working to complete the bonus room over the garage. Last weekend, I completed the remaining drywall repair and primed the closet. This morning, I began priming the room itself. I worked for about 5 hours, and intend to try to finish the task late tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Instead of working in silence, as is my wont to do, today I pulled out Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out. Released 20 years ago, it was one of my favorite albums during my early years in the faith. Within minutes, the music accomplished what the coffee couldn't - shake the cobwebs out of my head. Or maybe it was the paint fumes. Either way, I found myself singing along to songs I know I haven't even thought about in 10 years, and I remembered every word.

Like many of the acts back in those days, Petra was primarily a ministry. In the late 90's and during much of this decade the Christian music genre took off as an industry, and frankly, after while I stopped paying attention. Too many groups with similar sounds, and a bit too much focus on glamour and celebrity for my tastes, though I'm sure God blesses people through them. I had the fortune of seeing Petra in concert a couple of times, and came away knowing each time that the music was simply the means to share the Truth.

Twenty years ago, ministry was new to me. It was a fresh, new horizon with a plethora of possibilities. Yet my understanding was limited to a naive mix of "what I can do for God" and "study the Bible" trapped within the context of institutional church. But more on this another time. For now, less thinking, and more Petra Praise: