the song of today

The sun rose this morning. As I type, a muted orange sky is inching the darkness away and illuminating a light blue canvas. The silhouette of black birds pop against the backdrop of the waking world. They dance through the air as they sing the song of today. 

I woke up this morning. A muted headache beckoned me to pull the covers over my head to keep the darkness close a little longer. The silhouette of my to-do list loomed over the backdrop of my day and a knot formed in my stomach. The song of today terrifies me because I fear once again it will be the song of my inadequacy.

There is a stark difference between the way I wake up and the way creation wakes up. I often sit in my office and watch the sunrise over our building and pray that God would teach me how to sing harmony with the song of the sunrise. There’s such effortless freedom in it. The sky changes from one radiant color to the next, the birds sing and dance, the trees wave their arms joyfully welcoming in whatever is to come. There is no sense of impending doom for the birds and the trees. The sun does not seem to be the slightest bit concerned about if it is out performing the moon or if it will be beautiful enough today. The birds relish in the enoughness of the world which means they spend the morning dancing and singing because they know that the God who painted the sky with beauty will tend to them as well. 

I often fail to believe that there is enough. I fail to believe that I am enough. The whole world is singing and dancing and proving there is a God who provides but I sit and cower in fear that today will be the day that there isn’t enough. I fear that today will have problems that I cannot solve. That today will demand more than I have to give. The song I sing of today is not the song the birds are singing outside. 

I envy them. They don’t sow or reap or store away in barns and yet they have everything they need and a song that is in harmony with the song of today. 

I try to sow and harvest and store away and work hard and try hard and it seems to only be moving me further away from the harmony of song of today. My working often sounds like a clanging cymbal that is out of rhythm and out of harmony with the song of today.

In the first year of UCA I asked a wise five-year-old named London, "why are you so happy today?” She responded by saying with a sparkle in her eye, “because I’ve never met this day before!”

I get tears in my eyes typing those words. This is the song of the sunrise, the song of the birds and the trees and the clouds and the song I was created to sing. 

It’s a song that trusts that I am beloved. A song that believes in the goodness of the God who holds all things together. A song that welcomes all of it with open hands. A song that sees the whole world as a sanctuary. 

I don’t know what numbers God crunches to ensure that the birds all have enough but at UCA we need $166,400 to feed the scholars two meals a day for the rest of the school year. A wildly generous group of people have already committed to giving monthly to cover some of the cost of the meals and we have nearly $16,000 committed towards the goal. That means we still need $150,400 to be able to serve our kids for the rest of the 2020/2021 school year.

Today will you consider making an investment into fueling the growth of the UCA scholars? $7 a month provides two meals for a day of school.  Together we can sing the song of today, the song of enough. 

Donate here: https://www.classy.org/campaign/re/c303755